The need to measure body temperature contactless and quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency has led to the widespread use of infrared thermometers, thermal imaging cameras and thermal scanners as an alternative to the traditional contact clinical thermometers. However, limits and issues of noncontact temperature measurement devices are not well known and technical–scientific literature itself sometimes provides conflicting reference values on the body and skin temperature of healthy subjects. To limit the risk of contagion, national authorities have set the obligation to measure body temperature of workers at the entrance to the workplace. In this paper, the authors analyze noncontact body temperature measurement issues from both clinical and metrological points of view with the aim to (i) improve body temperature measurements accuracy; (ii) estimate the uncertainty of body temperature measurement on the field; (iii) propose a screening decision rule for the prevention of the spread of COVID-19. The approach adopted in this paper takes into account both the traditional instrumental uncertainty sources and clinical–medical ones related to the subjectivity of the measurand. A proper screening protocol for body temperature measurement considering the role of uncertainty is essential to correctly choose the threshold temperature value and measurement method to access critical places during COVID-19 pandemic emergency.

Most of the school buildings in Italy are high energy-demanding buildings with no ad-hoc ventilation systems (i.e., naturally-ventilated buildings). Therefore, reducing the heat losses of schools represent the main aspect to be dealt with. Nonetheless, the indoor air quality of the building should be simultaneously considered. Indeed, to date, energy consumptions and air quality are considered as incompatible aspects especially in naturally-ventilated buildings. The aim of the present paper is to evaluate the effect of different ventilation and airing strategies on both indoor air quality and energy consumptions in high energy-demanding naturally-ventilated classrooms. To this purpose, an Italian test-classroom, characterized in terms of air permeability and thermophysical parameters of the envelope, was investigated by means of experimental analyses and simulations through CO2 mass balance equation during the heating season. The air quality was assessed in terms of indoor CO2 concentrations whereas the energy consumptions were evaluated through the asset rating approach. Results clearly report that not adequate indoor CO2 concentrations are measured in the classroom for free-running ventilation scenarios even in low densely populated conditions (2.2 m2 person−1), whereas scheduled airing procedures can reduce the indoor CO2 levels at the cost of higher energy need for ventilation. In particular, when airing periods leading to the air exchange rate required by standards are adopted, the CO2 concentration can decrease to values lower than 1000 ppm, but the ventilation losses increase up to 36% of the overall energy need for space heating of the classroom. On the contrary, when the same air exchange rate is applied through mechanical ventilation systems equipped with heat recovery units, the ventilation energy loss contribution decreases to 5% and the overall energy saving results higher than 30%. Such energy-saving was found even higher for occupancy scenarios characterized by more densely populated conditions of the classroom typically occurring in Italian classrooms.

Power to gas (PtG) is an emerging technology that allows to overcome the issues due to the increasingly widespread use of intermittent renewable energy sources (IRES). Via water electrolysis, power surplus on the electric grid is converted into hydrogen or into synthetic natural gas (SNG) that can be directly injected in the natural gas network for long-term energy storage. The core units of the Power to synthetic natural gas (PtSNG) plant are the electrolyzer and the methanation reactors where the renewable electrolytic hydrogen is converted to synthetic natural gas by adding carbon dioxide. A technical issue of the PtSNG plant is the different dynamics of the electrolysis unit and the methanation unit. The use of a hydrogen storage system can help to decouple these two subsystems and to manage the methanation unit for assuring long operation time and reducing the number of shutdowns. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the energy storage potential and the technical feasibility of the PtSNG concept to store intermittent renewable sources. Therefore, different plant sizes (1, 3, and 6 MW) have been defined and investigated by varying the ratio between the renewable electric energy sent to the plant and the total electric energy generated by the renewable energy source (RES) facility based on a 12 MW wind farm. The analysis has been carried out by developing a thermochemical and electrochemical model and a dynamic model. The first allows to predict the plant performance in steady state. The second allows to forecast the annual performance and the operation time of the plant by implementing the control strategy of the storage unit. The annual overall efficiencies are in the range of 42–44% low heating value (LHV basis). The plant load factor, i.e., the ratio between the annual chemical energy of the produced SNG and the plant capacity, results equal to 60.0%, 46.5%, and 35.4% for 1, 3, and 6 MW PtSNG sizes, respectively.

Unaware behaviors of occupants can affect energy consumption even more than incorrect installations and building envelope inefficiencies, with significant overconsumptions widely documented. Real time data and an effective and frequent billing of actual consumptions are required to reach an adequate awareness of energy consumption. From this point of view, the European Directive 2012/27/EU already imposed the use of metering and sub-metering systems, setting the minimum criteria for billing and related information based on real energy consumption data. To assess the ability of buildings to exploit new information and communication technologies (ICT) and sensitize both landlords and tenants to related savings, the new European Directive 2018/844/EU promotes the use of a smart readiness indicator. At the same time, basic information about indoor thermal comfort should be also gathered, aimed at avoiding that an excessive saving tendency can determine the onset of issues related to excessively low internal temperatures. In this paper, the authors address the problem of gathering, processing, and transmitting energy consumption and basic indoor air temperature data in the framework of an Internet of Things (IoT) integrated tool aimed at increasing residential user awareness through the use of consumption and benchmark indexes. Two case-studies in which thermal and electrical energy monitoring systems have been tested are presented and discussed. Finally, the suitability of the communication of energy consumption in terms of temporal, spatial, and typological aggregation has been evaluated.

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Development of technologies, materials, support systems, and coatings has made the integration of solar thermal systems into the building envelope increasingly possible. Solar thermal collectors can either be directly integrated, substituting conventional roof or façade covering materials, or constitute independent devices added to a roof or façade structure. Aimed at estimating the real effectiveness of building-integrated solar systems for domestic heat water (DHW) production or for heating integration, when horizontal or inclined pitches on buildings are not applicable, the authors analyze a case study with different scenarios, taking into account the issues connected to a highly urbanized context in the Mediterranean climate. A GIS model was used for estimating the energy balance, while the real producibility of the simulated systems was calculated by a dynamic hourly simulation model, realized according to ISO 52016. The savings in terms of primary energy needs obtained by installing solar thermal systems on the facade are presented, and the differences between the cases in which the system is used for DHW production only and for space heating too are distinguished and discussed. The evaluated potential is quantified in the absence of roof collectors, despite their high potential in the Mediterranean region, in order to better appreciate the effects induced by integrated facade systems.