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Counterbalancing climate change is one of the biggest challenges for engineers around the world. One of the areas in which optimization techniques can be used to reduce energy needs, and with that the pollution derived from its production, is building design. With this study of a generic office located both in a northern country and in a temperate/Mediterranean site, we want to introduce a coding approach to dynamic energy simulation, able to suggest, from the early-design phases when the main building forms are defined, optimal configurations considering the energy needs for heating, cooling and lighting. Generally, early-design considerations of energy need reduction focus on the winter season only, in line with the current regulations; nevertheless a more holistic approach is needed to include other high consumption voices, e.g., for space cooling and lighting. The main considered design parameter is the WWR (window-to-wall ratio), even if further variables are considered in a set of parallel analyses (level of insulation, orientation, activation of low-cooling strategies including shading devices and ventilative cooling). Finally, the effect of different levels of occupancy was included in the analysis to regress results and compare the WWR with corresponding heating and cooling needs. This approach is adapted to Passivhaus design optimization, working on energy need minimisation acting on envelope design choices. The results demonstrate that it is essential to include, from the early-design configurations, a larger set of variables in order to optimize the expected energy needs on the basis of different aspects (cooling, heating, lighting, design choices). Coding is performed using Python scripting, while dynamic energy simulations are based on EnergyPlus.
Giacomo Chiesa; Andrea Acquaviva; Mario Grosso; Lorenzo Bottaccioli; Maurizio Floridia; Edoardo Pristeri; Edoardo Sanna. Parametric Optimization of Window-to-Wall Ratio for Passive Buildings Adopting A Scripting Methodology to Dynamic-Energy Simulation. Sustainability 2019, 11, 3078 .
AMA StyleGiacomo Chiesa, Andrea Acquaviva, Mario Grosso, Lorenzo Bottaccioli, Maurizio Floridia, Edoardo Pristeri, Edoardo Sanna. Parametric Optimization of Window-to-Wall Ratio for Passive Buildings Adopting A Scripting Methodology to Dynamic-Energy Simulation. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (11):3078.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGiacomo Chiesa; Andrea Acquaviva; Mario Grosso; Lorenzo Bottaccioli; Maurizio Floridia; Edoardo Pristeri; Edoardo Sanna. 2019. "Parametric Optimization of Window-to-Wall Ratio for Passive Buildings Adopting A Scripting Methodology to Dynamic-Energy Simulation." Sustainability 11, no. 11: 3078.
Sustainable design practices are being disseminated all around the world, thanks to a growing interest by users, builders, and politicians in facing the impact of climate changes and the need for a more sustainable future. Nevertheless, although design practices include currently green issues and technologies, these are applied mainly in the last design phases in order to comply with local and/or national regulations and requirements (e.g. minimum values for the energy demand to be covered by renewable sources and for the envelope transmittance). Instead, to integrate sustainable technologies in an energy- and cost-effective way, it is necessary to deal with them since the earliest design phases, i.e. building programming and site analysis. Furthermore, passive and hybrid technical building systems (TBS) are dependent on the specific project context, and this is even more apparent for cooling. In fact, while the performance of passive heating TBS is mainly related to solar access and reduction of energy losses, the one of space cooling TBS depends on other variables such as internal heat gains, heat capacity, and wind environment. The paper describes a methodology to assess the energy-saving potential of passive ventilative systems in the earliest design phases. Site and climate aspects, together with definitions of needs and requirements for building programming, will be described. Results from an application of a method based on Givoni-Milne bioclimatic chart to evaluate the climate-dependent potential of passive system are reported. Criteria for spatial and technological integration of passive cooling systems are also presented.
Giacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso. Meta-Design Approach to Environmental Building Programming for Passive Cooling of Buildings. Seaside Building Design: Principles and Practice 2018, 285 -296.
AMA StyleGiacomo Chiesa, Mario Grosso. Meta-Design Approach to Environmental Building Programming for Passive Cooling of Buildings. Seaside Building Design: Principles and Practice. 2018; ():285-296.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGiacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso. 2018. "Meta-Design Approach to Environmental Building Programming for Passive Cooling of Buildings." Seaside Building Design: Principles and Practice , no. : 285-296.
Site-climate design is the first phase to be carried out for a sustainable design of a building. In some local building codes and environmental rating tools, specific requirements related to building location on the plot are included. Generally, in site design, solar access and wind protection/exposition are the two most considered parameters, together with local temperature conditions. An effective tool to analyse the environmental quality for localising a specific function and activity on a plot is the “site microclimate matrix”. This technique, firstly developed in the US, includes solar and wind access analyses for specific days of the year and hours of the day (able to represent seasonal limits). Sunny and shaded areas in the plot are overlapped to areas protected and exposed to wind in order to classify the entire plot in four classes (sunny-calm, sunny-windy, shaded-calm, shaded-windy). These classes can help in applying a score of bioclimatic suitability for the location of several indoor/outdoor functions and activities. Solar access is generally determined by using instruments such as solar charts and shading mask protractors, while few science-based tools have been applied so far for assessing wind access and protection. For overtaking this gap, a method is presented here, including a parametric definition of wind wake core areas. The paper will introduce a parametric tool able to calculate, for parallelepiped solids, wind wake cores and shadow profiles to calculate a site microclimate matrix. This calculation can be performed not only on the plot plane but also in three dimensions. By using this matrix, it can be possible to classify the volume of the plot for a sample of activities and suggesting their more suitable localisation. Considering the algorithmic nature of the proposed tool, able to directly interact with a CAD-based environment, it will be possible to define indicators for assessing the optimal environmental quality of an urban design project.
Giacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso. A Parametric Tool for Assessing Optimal Location of Buildings According to Environmental Criteria. Seaside Building Design: Principles and Practice 2018, 115 -129.
AMA StyleGiacomo Chiesa, Mario Grosso. A Parametric Tool for Assessing Optimal Location of Buildings According to Environmental Criteria. Seaside Building Design: Principles and Practice. 2018; ():115-129.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGiacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso. 2018. "A Parametric Tool for Assessing Optimal Location of Buildings According to Environmental Criteria." Seaside Building Design: Principles and Practice , no. : 115-129.
Giacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso; David Pearlmutter; Steve Ray. Advances in adaptive comfort modelling and passive/hybrid cooling of buildings. Energy and Buildings 2017, 148, 211 -217.
AMA StyleGiacomo Chiesa, Mario Grosso, David Pearlmutter, Steve Ray. Advances in adaptive comfort modelling and passive/hybrid cooling of buildings. Energy and Buildings. 2017; 148 ():211-217.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGiacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso; David Pearlmutter; Steve Ray. 2017. "Advances in adaptive comfort modelling and passive/hybrid cooling of buildings." Energy and Buildings 148, no. : 211-217.
Giacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso. Breakthrough of natural and hybrid ventilative cooling technologies: strategies, applications and case studies. International Journal of Ventilation 2017, 16, 81 -83.
AMA StyleGiacomo Chiesa, Mario Grosso. Breakthrough of natural and hybrid ventilative cooling technologies: strategies, applications and case studies. International Journal of Ventilation. 2017; 16 (2):81-83.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGiacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso. 2017. "Breakthrough of natural and hybrid ventilative cooling technologies: strategies, applications and case studies." International Journal of Ventilation 16, no. 2: 81-83.
Giacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso; Alessio Bogni; Giacomo Garavaglia. Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling System Integration in Existing Residential Building Typologies: A Case Study. Energy Procedia 2017, 111, 599 -608.
AMA StyleGiacomo Chiesa, Mario Grosso, Alessio Bogni, Giacomo Garavaglia. Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling System Integration in Existing Residential Building Typologies: A Case Study. Energy Procedia. 2017; 111 ():599-608.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGiacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso; Alessio Bogni; Giacomo Garavaglia. 2017. "Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling System Integration in Existing Residential Building Typologies: A Case Study." Energy Procedia 111, no. : 599-608.
This paper presents the general concept of the NAC (Natural Air Conditioning)-wall system and some experimental results on a first prototype. The originality of the system is to perform a solar DEC (Desiccant, Evaporative Cooling) open cycle by exploiting natural buoyancy driven ventilation, thus avoiding the use of fans. The supply air is dehumidified by a zeolite based adsorption bed and is cooled indirectly by an evaporative cooler, through a low pressure heat exchanger. Eight days measurements were performed, each including a sample with five adsorption/regeneration cycles. During the first measurements, thermal COPs were in the range 0.30 1.01, depending on duration of regeneration and absorption phases. This led to a better tuning of the system, which gave for the remaining samples an average COPth of 0.64, with an average electrical COP of 12.7, calculated considering electrical consumption of water loops pump
Marco Simonetti; Giacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso; Giovanni Vincenzo Fracastoro. NAC wall: An open cycle solar-DEC with naturally driven ventilation. Energy and Buildings 2016, 129, 357 -366.
AMA StyleMarco Simonetti, Giacomo Chiesa, Mario Grosso, Giovanni Vincenzo Fracastoro. NAC wall: An open cycle solar-DEC with naturally driven ventilation. Energy and Buildings. 2016; 129 ():357-366.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarco Simonetti; Giacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso; Giovanni Vincenzo Fracastoro. 2016. "NAC wall: An open cycle solar-DEC with naturally driven ventilation." Energy and Buildings 129, no. : 357-366.
Mario Grosso; Mehrnoosh Ahmadi. Potential cooling energy reduction by a one-channel wind tower: case study modelling in south-Mediterranean climate. International Journal of Ventilation 2016, 1 -21.
AMA StyleMario Grosso, Mehrnoosh Ahmadi. Potential cooling energy reduction by a one-channel wind tower: case study modelling in south-Mediterranean climate. International Journal of Ventilation. 2016; ():1-21.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMario Grosso; Mehrnoosh Ahmadi. 2016. "Potential cooling energy reduction by a one-channel wind tower: case study modelling in south-Mediterranean climate." International Journal of Ventilation , no. : 1-21.
This study analyses the climate-dependent passive ventilative cooling (PVC) potential in central and southern Europe. This analysis was carried out in two phases: (1) evaluation of PVC potential as a climate-dependent variable, in different locations representative of European climate zones for both wind-drive airflow (comfort ventilation) and temperature gradient (environmental and structural cooling); (2) verification of the above PVC potential through dynamic energy simulations on a reference-building model located in selected cities. In the first phase, a parametrical analysis on the typical meteorological year of 55 European cities was carried out considering a new synthetic parameter – ‘residual CDH’ (CDHres) – representing the potential reduction of cooling degree hours due to PVC. In the second phase, the PVC potential was assessed through dynamic energy simulations on an office-building unit located in a sample of locations (10), varying building envelop physical parameters and VAC system configurations. Results show that PVC is an effective strategy for reducing cooling energy consumption in buildings in central and southern European climates. Furthermore, dynamic simulations demonstrate that internal heat capacity has an important role in PVC potential and validate the climatic analysis, especially when temperature gradient is taken into account.
Giacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso. Cooling potential of natural ventilation in representative climates of central and southern Europe. International Journal of Ventilation 2016, 16, 84 -98.
AMA StyleGiacomo Chiesa, Mario Grosso. Cooling potential of natural ventilation in representative climates of central and southern Europe. International Journal of Ventilation. 2016; 16 (2):84-98.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGiacomo Chiesa; Mario Grosso. 2016. "Cooling potential of natural ventilation in representative climates of central and southern Europe." International Journal of Ventilation 16, no. 2: 84-98.
The paper analyses the impact of embodied energy over a building's life cycle as an important factor in construction planning, particularly for temporary structures. In fact, a choice of low-embodied energy construction materials, technological components, and construction systems is essential to guarantee a very high-energy performance of those constructions. Temporary buildings are exempted from the application of the minimum requirements to reduce energy in use as set by the European directive 2010/31/EU due to their short expected service life. Hence, it becomes even more important to consider the impact of their embodied energy and the one of their end of life. Results from a case study, a temporary building designed for Milan Expo 2015, are presented to compare embodied energy of construction materials, including scenarios for their end-of-life, and predicted energy consumption at use stage.
Mario Grosso; Francesca Thiebat. Life Cycle Environmental Assessment of Temporary Building Constructions. Energy Procedia 2015, 78, 3180 -3185.
AMA StyleMario Grosso, Francesca Thiebat. Life Cycle Environmental Assessment of Temporary Building Constructions. Energy Procedia. 2015; 78 ():3180-3185.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMario Grosso; Francesca Thiebat. 2015. "Life Cycle Environmental Assessment of Temporary Building Constructions." Energy Procedia 78, no. : 3180-3185.
The research unit associated to the Laboratory Systems for Technology Innovation (LaSTIn) of the Department of Architecture and Design as well as the Department of Energy, Polytechnic University of Turin, has investigated the possibility of producing a modular wall system for hybrid/natural passive cooling. This system uses pressure differences typical of natural air movements and it is conceived as a mean to reach a quasi-zero-energy building as foreseen by Dir. 2010/31/EU by 2020 for new constructions. In addition, it realises a high level of technological and architectural integration in building constructions. The research focuses on passive and solar cooling techniques and studies the following possible systems, designed and tested separately in laboratory: a) latent heat adsorption cells including silica gel and zeolites for controlling the specific air humidity content, with heat regeneration by a vacuum water solar collectors system; b) a low-pressure heat exchanger, with crossing flows through ducts of rectangular section, to recover sensible heat/cold from return air; c) a passive evaporative cooling element. This paper present the design concept of the wall system as well as a first series of results from laboratory testing regarding the latent heat absorption component.
Mario Grosso; Gianvincenzo Fracastoro; Marco Simonetti; Giacomo Chiesa. A Hybrid Passive Cooling Wall System: Concept and Laboratory Testing Results. Energy Procedia 2015, 78, 79 -84.
AMA StyleMario Grosso, Gianvincenzo Fracastoro, Marco Simonetti, Giacomo Chiesa. A Hybrid Passive Cooling Wall System: Concept and Laboratory Testing Results. Energy Procedia. 2015; 78 ():79-84.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMario Grosso; Gianvincenzo Fracastoro; Marco Simonetti; Giacomo Chiesa. 2015. "A Hybrid Passive Cooling Wall System: Concept and Laboratory Testing Results." Energy Procedia 78, no. : 79-84.
The present study reports the results of a 12-month-long monitoring campaign of an earth-to-air horizontal heat exchanger (EAHX) system in a school complex in Imola, Italy. With more than 2kmof buried pipes, it represents one of the biggest Italian applications of this technology. Considerable differences between inlet and outlet air temperature have been noticed both in winter and in summer. Air temperature and relative humidity have been represented over a psychrometric chart while the energy performance of the system was analysed based on data of sensible heat exchange.The monitored results have been compared with three other cases presented in literature in order to verify the parameter values of different EAHX in various climates and design condition
Giacomo Chiesa; Marco Simonetti; Mario Grosso. A 3-field earth-heat-exchange system for a school building in Imola, Italy: Monitoring results. Renewable Energy 2014, 62, 563 -570.
AMA StyleGiacomo Chiesa, Marco Simonetti, Mario Grosso. A 3-field earth-heat-exchange system for a school building in Imola, Italy: Monitoring results. Renewable Energy. 2014; 62 ():563-570.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGiacomo Chiesa; Marco Simonetti; Mario Grosso. 2014. "A 3-field earth-heat-exchange system for a school building in Imola, Italy: Monitoring results." Renewable Energy 62, no. : 563-570.