Analysis of Energy Performance of a High-Performance Building in a Local Mediterranean Climatic Context

摘要

In recent years in the construction industry, a new energy policy has emerged that, referring to the current European Directive 31/2010/UE, aims to reduce energy consumption through the design of nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB). However, because this term can have different meanings, it is important to investigate the characteristics of this concept. Thus, this chapter considers as a case study a building defined as a NZEB - Project Botticelli in Mascalucia (Catania, Italy), located in a Mediterranean context. From this analysis we highlight the main strategies used for the design of high-performance buildings, which are similar to Passivhaus strategies, whose criteria, however, identify very selective limits of reference, especially suitable for some climatic contexts. The goal of this investigation is the analysis of these so-called limit values with respect to the specific context of local Mediterranean climates, paying attention to the orientation of buildings through the parameter of solar radiation. The envelope is the element that characterizes the energy efficiency of a building, so it is taken into consideration in the study of external opaque components for the purpose of evaluating energy performance while the building is in use; in this way, it is possible to identify a connection between the "limit" parameters for the design of a high-performance building and the climatic parameters of the context of reference to obtain more complete information about the energy performance of a component.