Abstract
Thermal performance monitoring of buildings and heating systems has been used in Italy since 1979. The main purposes were to assess both the typical energy con sumption of the different construction technologies used, and the amount of saving obtained by energy conservation measures or solar energy applications. For the purposes of research, the data acquisition systems used were quite sophisti cated, and the monitoring period very long (up to 3 years). In this paper the author discusses the possiblity of making use of short period performance monitoring as a basis for the final thermal evaluation of a building; this is done by presenting two relevant case studies. The first case regards a school building (17,750 m3) where the heating system is solar assisted by 800 m2 of air collectors. The working of the system was specially designed to take into account the complex utilization pattern of the building. The second case regards a convertible mobile home (140 m3) designed for emergency assistance in case of earthquake: in this case the heating system is electric. After outlining the buildings' construction and physical parameters, the author de scribes the testing procedure adopted. The results obtained are then presented, comparing the measured behaviour of the buildings and systems with the expected ones. Starting from these first experiences, some aspects regarding the possibility of per forming a final thermal evaluation of buildings based on this technique are discussed, such as: • the shortest significant performance monitoring period • types and minimum significant number of parameters to be measured • physical parameters qualifying the energy consumption of buildings • complementary measurements (useful or necessary) Finally, the author gives a short account of future work on the possibility to use low-cost instrumentation.
Published Version
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