How Climate Change Affects the Building Energy Consumptions Due to Cooling, Heating, and Electricity Demands of Italian Residential Sector

Abstract

Climate change affects the buildings’ performance, significantly influencing energy consumption, as well as the indoor thermal comfort. As a consequence, the growing outdoor environmental temperatures entail a slight reduction in heating consumption and an increase in cooling consumption, with different overall effects depending on the latitudes. This document focuses attention on the Italian residential sector, considering the current and reduced meteorological data, in anticipation of future climate scenarios. According to a sample of 419 buildings, referring to the climatic conditions of Milan, Florence, Rome, and Naples, the heating and cooling needs are calculated by a simplified dynamic model, in current and future conditions. The effects of the simplest climate adaptation measure, represented by the introduction of new air conditioners, have been also evaluated. The simulations results show an important reduction in complex energy consumption (Milan −6%, Florence −22%, Rome −25%, Naples −30%), due to the greater incidence of heating demand in the Italian context. However, the increase in air conditioning electrical consumption over the hot season (Milan +11%, Florence +20%, Rome +19%, Naples +16%) can play a critical role for the electrical system; for that reason, the introduction of photovoltaic arrays as a compensatory measure have been analysed.

Climate Change and Building Energy Consumption: A Review of the Impact of Weather Parameters Influenced by Climate Change on Household Heating and Cooling Demands of Buildings

“…That is why, adaptation to the climate change can be considered as a vital challenge of the 21st century to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming. Several international committees have attempted to use various methods for that purpose [27]. This area of the climate change impacts has been the subject matter of numerous studies because it is a vital issue for human life.…”

How to Prioritize Energy Efficiency Intervention in Municipal Public Buildings to Decrease CO2 Emissions? A Case Study from Italy

“…Moreover, it is estimated that temperature variations, rapid urban development and higher living standards [8] will cause an increase in the energy demand of buildings with a shift between dwelling heating and air cooling share, in particular in hot and humid countries [9], affecting the security of energy supply and the stability of the electrical systems [10].…”

Historical analysis and refurbishment proposal of the “Red schools” in Viterbo

“…In this scenario, the defensive attitude that resulted in the attempt to exclude historic buildings from any obligation has changed and has developed into a more constructive approach, that, together with the desire to preserve buildings, also consider the possibility to use them efficiently [8][9]. Therefore, guidelines and good practices must be applied for a correct energy refurbishment of the building heritage, to adapt it to the needs of contemporary use and to climate change [10]; if feasible, efforts should be made to get to the nZEB standard [11][12][13], with a renovation that also considers the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) [14] and the utilization of RES, introducing automation systems to manage flexible loads [15,16]; for buildings subject to constrain, it is necessary to find the way to improve their performance preserving the historical and architectural values [17][18][19]. As for the urban environment, however, it is better to use those energy carriers that reduce local pollutant emissions [20-22-25-26].…”