Planned energy-efficient retrofitting of a residential building in Italy

Abstract

The planned energy-efficient retrofitting of a residential building in Bologna, North-Center Italy is presented. The building is a detached house with an unheated basement, three floors with 2 apartments each, and an unheated attic. The total heated floor area is 281.9 m2. The external wall is made of solid brick masonry and most windows are single glazed; no thermal insulation is present. Space heating is supplied by a gas boiler and radiators in the rooms. DHW is supplied by single-apartment electric boilers in 5 apartments and by a gas boiler in one apartment. Lighting is obtained by incandescent lamps. The proposed retrofitting includes: external thermal insulation of the vertical walls by calcium silicate hydrates and loft insulation by mineral wool; replacement of windows; installation of a multifunction air-to-water heat pump for heating, cooling and DHW; replacement of the radiators by new heat exchangers; LED lighting; installation of PV panels. The building has been simulated by TRNSYS 17, and the heat pump has been simulated by own MATLAB codes. The retrofitting will reduce the total annual use of primary energy (excluding appliances) from 332.5 to 44.8 kWh/m2, and will yield an important improvement of thermal comfort.

Keywords

• Energy retrofitting
• Residential building
• Multifunction heat pump
• PV panels
• Hourly simulation