Thermal comfort strategies and energy implications in office buildings: A case study

¹ ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, DUEE Department, Casaccia Research Center, 00123 via Anguillarese 301, Rome, Italy
² ENEA Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, DUEE Department, Portici Research Center, 80055 Piazzale Enrico Fermi 1, Naples, Italy

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD IV) highlights the importance of ensuring adequate levels of indoor comfort and air quality in the context of energy retrofit, addressing building energy audits toward energy efficiency solutions while enhancing occupants' environmental conditions. In this framework, the present article analyses the energy implications of potential retrofit strategies for a case study building, previously subject to extensive thermal comfort monitoring, by applying the dynamic hourly calculation method given by UNI EN ISO 52016-1:2018. Starting from results of the monitoring campaign, the building energy demand was estimated by modeling different indoor thermal zones, to obtain a more detailed representation of the building thermal behaviour. On this basis, several retrofit scenarios, focused on building envelope and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, were assessed and compared in terms of their impact on overall energy performance as well as on indoor thermal comfort conditions. The results show that the proposed measures can lead to different impacts on building energy demand, primary energy consumption and thermal comfort conditions. Overall, the study highlights that the integration of comfort analysis into energy audits can support the definition of more balanced and effective retrofit strategies, improving energy performance and occupants' satisfaction.