Abstract
The awareness that a historic building is a complex system made up of interdependent parts and endowed with a specific energetic behavior is now widespread. Therefore, the energy improvement of a historic building does not only consist of designing individual construction elements or high-performance materials. On the contrary, it is based on the ability to analyze the buildings and recognize and enhance the specific thermal characteristics of each individual situation. Over the past two decades, the publication of European directives aimed at improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings has led each country to promulgate national guidelines in order to help operators planning and implementing energy improvement actions for historic buildings. The guidelines of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage prescribe a method to evaluate the effectiveness of different energy improvement interventions in historic buildings through a qualitative-quantitative analysis based on static energy simulation. However, the ministerial guidelines do not prescribe any method for the analytical evaluation of other key issues aimed at the success of any energy improvement action for the historic building. Based on the literary and standard review on EEHB 2000–2020, this paper presents a multi-criteria comparative analysis method of energy improvement techniques for historic buildings in order to support operators in choosing the most suitable action for each case study. The method analyses each energy improvement technique according to four parameters: energy efficiency (increase in expected efficiency), compatibility (ability to ensure the protection of the morphological, material, and architectural features of the historic building), durability, and cost effectiveness. The method is based on descriptive and analytic forms for the different parts of the historic building and for the different improvement actions. These have been experimentally verified on a masonry case study, representative of widespread built heritage. The result opens the possibility of implementing the national guidelines and increasing their effectiveness.
Highlights
The issue of energy efficiency for built heritage is currently much debated, especially in the Italian context, where, since the early 1980s, the construction market has largely concentrated on the recovery of existing buildings.The issue is more far-reaching if we consider that among the latter there are the so-called valuable buildings protected by the Codice dei Beni Culturali e del Paesaggio [1] and the numerous ones not bound by national legislation, which have peculiar characteristics to be safeguarded in their material and architectural integrity [2]
This is a well-established fact, still today most professionals in the sector believe that the aspects related to safeguarding are difficult to reconcile with the innovative techniques of energy improvement, considering that these are mostly designed for the new buildings
The text discusses the regulatory procedure for the assessment and identification of direct operations useful for the purpose of improving energy performance through the full knowledge of the subjects of intervention
Summary
The issue of energy efficiency for built heritage is currently much debated, especially in the Italian context, where, since the early 1980s, the construction market has largely concentrated on the recovery of existing buildings. Historic buildings are an integral part of our cities and their characteristics contribute considerably to determining the identity of the different places This is a well-established fact, still today most professionals in the sector believe that the aspects related to safeguarding are difficult to reconcile with the innovative techniques of energy improvement, considering that these are mostly designed for the new buildings. Despite the thermal systems providing a significant energy improvement to the whole building if properly designed, such as the energy improvement interventions on the envelopes, it is crucial to deepen the architectural problem and above all the tangible possibilities of losing many of the peculiarities of the historical buildings For these reasons, the main objectives that have been set are aimed at safeguarding the historic, architectural, and material characteristics of the buildings to guarantee effective energy improvement through a descriptive system and a simple methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of the energy improvement interventions on built heritage
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
