52 research outputs found
Data-driven building performance evaluation at different scales. Innovative metrics and methodological insights
No full textL'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen
Pursuing occupants’ health and well-being in building management: Definition of new metrics based on indoor air parameters
No full textThe spread of COVID-19 has affected the lives of millions of people. Pandemic has made people more sensitive to health issues. In particular, the growing concern for the virus spread in confined spaces has promoted the necessity to improve indoor air quality. Literature is stressing how buildings must be designed and operated pursuing occupants’ health and well-being, with a particular attention for indoor air parameters. This poses the challenge of monitoring and assessing these aspects through proper metrics. In this paper the approach towards a multi-step assessment procedure embedding in buildings assessment health and well-being related variables and indicators is elaborated. They are intended to inform a building manager of the potential influence of air conditions on human health and well-being. Moreover, a set of monetary metrics (i.e., impacts) is proposed to translate energy and indoor air related building performances into euros, putting the basis for a comprehensive economic evaluation. The application of the set of proposed metrics to an Italian hotel (i.e., Italian pilot of H2020 MOBISTYLE project), enabled to map some indoor air conditions causing health concerns, and to identify clusters of guests with best and worst indoor air conditions, to be targeted by new management strategies. Despite case study specific limitations, the application exemplified how the methodology can expand the traditional energy-based performance assessment for building management towards indoor air domain and the related economic impacts, with implication on results in terms of overall economic performance of the building from both a private and public perspective
New evaluation metrics: the H2020 Mobistyle project contribution
No full textIn energy planning for the building sector, it is possible to identify two needs: i) considering the multiple benefits of renovation strategies in evaluation procedures; ii) educate occupants about their impacts on buildings energy consumptions to control the performance gap. In this paper the H2020 Mobistyle project contribution is underlined
Supporting sustainability projects at neighbourhood scale: Green visions for the San Salvario district in Turin guided by a combined assessment framework
No full textA resilient city includes multiple energy carriers, high-efficiency infrastructure, lower resource demand to
decarbonize and sustain the urban system in accordance with the Paris Agreement, the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the various recovery plans following the COVID-19 pandemic period. To achieve these goals, a key role is played by all urban sectors, which can reduce environmental impacts and accelerate the green transition at larger scale. Intervening on a district scale obviously requires the evaluation of different aspects, taking into account both economic and non-economic criteria, as well as different points of view, involving all stakeholders. This paper proposes a multi-step evaluation procedure that extends the European manual-based Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to include the extra-economic benefits and the stakeholders’ opinion in the evaluation, according to the COmpoSIte Model for Assessment (COSIMA) method. This is the first application of COSIMA in the urban design sectors (i.e. buildings, water, public lighting, transportation and waste management) where different sustainable measures for a real case study located in Turin (Italy) were compared to define the most suitable transformation scenario according to multiple criteria. The results have shown how invasive scenarios allow achieving the greatest benefits, despite the huge initial costs of realization
Energy Audit and Multi-criteria Decision Analysis to Identify Sustainable Strategies in the University Campuses: Application to Politecnico di Torino
No full textUniversities play a headship role among entities that invest in technological progress and intend to increase education in sustainable culture towards a post-carbon society. With this in mind, Politecnico di Torino is a leader on the national and international scene. It has prepared sustainability lines for the next few years to translate the Sustainable Development Goals into concrete actions. The goal of this work is the evaluation of eight alternative energy efficiency scenarios resulting from the combination of different strategies for the retro!t of the University Campus of Politecnico di Torino. In the first part of the study, the alternatives are assessed in terms of energy performance. Subsequently, an economic evaluation supported by the multi-criteria TOPSIS method makes it possible to order the alternatives according to the opinion of several experts. The integrated evaluation allows considering a set of co-benefits generated by the project going behind the energy aspects. The best strategy
involves covering electricity needs with renewable energy sources, adopting students’ engagement policies and optimizing the set-point temperature. The results highlight how low-cost solutions such as awareness campaigns and variation of the set-point temperature can bring signi!cant co-benefits from energy, economic, environmental and social perspectives
A new price list for retrofit intervention evaluation on some archetypical buildings
No full textThe latest Directive 2018/844/EU represents the guideline for the preparation of the Italian long-term strategy for the renovation of the building stock. The Directive proposes to the Member States the realization of a complete review of the buildings on the national territory, both public and private. This study wants to contribute to the reduction of lack of quality data in terms of structured price lists for energy investments on buildings, being a reference and support for professionals and researchers in the feasibility evaluations.
In particular, the aim of this research is defining a parametric price list for retrofit intervention on multi- family buildings. Beside the costs, energy consumptions and greenhouse gas emissions for different retrofit scenarios are also provided. The methodology adopted to reach this aim is organized into two subsequent processes: the energetic assessment and the financial evaluation. After the description of the methodology, an application on 8 archetypical buildings selected from the TABULA database is proposed. The methodological approach is potentially replicable to enlarge the knowledge on reference prices, consumptions and emissions values for buildings energy retrofit
Proposal for an Integrated Approach to Support Urban Sustainability: The COSIMA Method Applied to Eco-Districts
No full textCities represent the places with the greatest environmental and energy impacts in the world. Their transformation through a sustainable key would make possible reducing the pressures registered in these areas. According to the Sustainable Development Goals, attention has shifted more and more to the creation of sustainable and safe communities, characterized by low energy-consuming buildings due to smart heating and cooling systems, and sustainable transport solutions based on the use of private electric and hybrid vehicles. Besides the energy and environmental impacts, actions to tackle climate change provide the opportunity to create collateral benefits that can potentially generate economic and social improvement for the whole community. The co-benefits inclusion in the decision analysis is crucial to remove barriers and reveal the real potential of renovation projects at the urban/district scale. Following the guidelines of the European Commission, the tool used when evaluating public projects and policies is the Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA). One of the main limitations of the CBA method is the estimation of all positive and negative externalities in monetary value that can lead to imprecise assessment. To overcome this obstacle, a growing scientific literature on the application of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to assess the sustainability of investment at district scale is emerging. In this study, we propose a new assessment framework based on the COmpoSIte Modeling Assessment (COSIMA) to address the multidimensionality that characterizes the redevelopment process of eco-districts considering energy, environmental, economic and social evaluation criteria. The COSIMA method enables considering both the tangible and intangible aspects of the problem and the opinion of the various stakeholders involved in the decision-making process, which are crucial aspects in urban transformations
A composite decision support system for assessing transformation scenarios at the district level
No full textUrban areas are responsible for almost 75% of overall resource consumption. To avoid a further increase of these values, it is important to implement energy efficiency measures, in order to achieve the target of Post Carbon Cities (PCC). Next to the concept of Post Carbon Cities, the Post Carbon District (PCD) is emerging, becoming the appropriate level to test the different strategies to move towards a more sustainable society. The definition of energy policies at this level shall cover all the sectors of the entire urban system. In addition to the buildings, which become an active part of the energy system, the sectors of water, waste management, public and private mobility, and public lighting come into play. As suggested by the European Commission, the evaluation of alternative strategies at large scale must take into account, not only the energy and economic aspects, but also the environmental and social impacts. The objective of the present paper concerns an investigation of a tool for supporting the decision-making process of alternative scenarios of energy transformation for a district. Starting from the most common approaches used in the field of investment evaluations, an approach that combines the potential of Cost-Benefit and Multi Criteria Analyses is proposed to include financial aspects and intangible impacts generated by urban redevelopment projects
A decision-making process to support public administrations in defining local energy policies
No full textIn all world regions urbanisation growth is expected to continue to 2050 and consequently urban areas
have a key role in the transition to a more sustainable future. To reduce cities footprint, long-term strategies
involving actions across all the main urban sectors (buildings, transport, industry and supply) are required.
Therefore, methodologies that support public administrations in their decision-making planning process are
of key importance.
The research is focused on the necessity of re-thinking cities intervening on existing buildings and,
consequently, on the urgent requirement to develop local energy policies able to encourage the spreading of
energy efficiency measures, lowering some barriers to the interventions. Consistently, the main goal of the
research here reported is to develop a methodology as support to the decision making process in defining
local energy policies. This methodology aims to suggest, by means of specifically identified tools (Key
Performance Indexes, quadrant-charts, Reference Buildings, etc.) and evaluation approaches (cost-optimal
analysis, cost-benefits analysis, etc.), local policies of energy planning related firstly to public buildings. The
present paper provides a full accounting, with some preliminary results, of the methodology implementation
and its application to the case study of the Municipality of Torino, since a collaboration between it and the
Politecnico of Torino is ongoing in the framework of the Energy Center Initiative. This first ongoing
application enables to test the methodology and to highlights the necessity of strengthen the cooperation
among municipal offices and to develop mechanism for sharing data such as digital achieves
Review of health and well-being aspects in Green Certification Protocols
No full textOver the past decades, the world-leading Green Certification Protocols have paid
increasing attention to health-related aspects of buildings. However, the way and the extent to
which green certifications currently account for these aspects vary largely. This paper aims to
review and compare four certification protocols, namely LEED v4, BREEAM 2018, WELL v2, and
MINERGIE-ECO v1.4, and to provide insights on how aspects related to occupants’ health and
well-being and their influencing factors are accounted for and assessed. To that scope, indicators
used to assess the users' health and well-being are extracted from each certification and
compared. Indicators traditionally used to evaluate IEQ in buildings (thermal, indoor air quality,
visual and acoustic) based on international or national standards were found in all certifications.
However, the analysis highlights that their assessment and verification stage (e.g., pre- vs. post-
occupancy) significantly differs from one label to another. More “advanced” indicators, which are
related to mind, promotion of physical activities, and community engagement, have come to light.
While a comprehensive approach to the evaluation of well-being might include a combination of
objective (e.g., measurement-based evaluations) and subjective components (e.g., people’s
subjective evaluation), the review highlighted that only in one protocol (i.e., WELL), direct
feedback from occupants is kept in the loop for further optimization of the building management
during operation. Otherwise, indicators are mainly verified through quantitative measurements,
reports, or implemented policies
- …
