LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course provides the basics of the energy analysis of buildings; in particular, all the contributions for the evaluation of the heating and cooling loads are explained in detail. With the final aim of energy saving and sustainability, possible actions on the envelope and on the operative conditions are suggested to reduce the energy request of the building. Moreover, some elements about thermal plants are provided and the dynamic simulation of buildings is introduced with the use of a software open-source.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of course the student is expected to be able to:

• understand engineering problems related to the building and its thermal plants;
• estimate the thermal loads of the building;
• approach the sizing process of the thermal plants.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Building envelope: losses and gains through opaque and glazed components, requested minimal global heat transfer coefficients, thermal bridges, Glaser analysis; solutions to improve the efficiency of opaque and glazed components of the envelope; infiltration and ventilation loads; internal gains.

Thermal plants: fundamentals of thermal comfort; fundamentals of psychometry and air conditioning; chillers and heat pumps; all-air plants and air handlers sizing; furnaces; plant efficiencies.

Plant-building interactions: calculation of primary energy requirements in buildings; high efficiency plants solutions.

Introduction to the open source software EnergyPlus for the dynamic energy simulation of buildings.

This unit contributes to the achievement of the following Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda: 4. Quality Education, 7. Clean and Affordable Energy, 9. Enterprise, innovation and infrastructure, 11. Sustainable cities and communities, 13. Fighting climate change.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Kreider, Jan, and Ari Rabl. Heating and Cooling of Buildings: Design for Efficiency. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1994. ISBN: 9780078347764.
• McQuiston, Faye, Jerald Parker, and Jeffrey Spitler. Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning Analysis and Design. 6th ed. New York, NY: Wiley, 2004. ISBN: 9780471470151.