ENERGY SAVING INTERVENTIONS IN NON RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS: A CASE STUDY

In Europe, energy consumption in the building sector is in continual growth, with annual increases of around 2%, due mainly to the greater energy requirement for summer air conditioning, above all in the public sector. The current transitory regime governed by Italian laws D.Lgs. 192/05 and D.Lgs 311/06, for the reduction of energy consumption in buildings, provides for the drafting of a “Certificate of Energy Qualification” which identifies primary energy consumption and possible interventions for the improvement of energy efficiency in buildings, but limited to the heating period. In this study the energy performance of a building with a gross volume equal to 15 000 m³ situated in Southern Italy in the town of Lamezia Terme (Catanzaro), actual seat of the Town Council is assessed. The building is characterised by large in single pane glazed surfaces. The building, due to the surrounding climatic conditions, has high energy requirements both for winter heating and for summer cooling, and is suited for renovation works aimed at reducing consumption. By using a transient calculation code (TRNSYS) and with reference to a typical meteorological year, various interventions on the building shell were simulated and, for each proposed solution, the corresponding energy saving was quantified as well as some descriptive indexes of the economic outline.