Are the dwellings of historic Mediterranean cities cold in winter? A field assessment on their indoor environment and energy performance

Although European heritage buildings are excluded from energy efficiency targets, it would be beneficial to include the largest group, that of listed housing, in energy retrofit plans, in order to encourage its occupation and contributing to the sustainable maintenance of historic cities. This requi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Caro Martínez, Rosa Ana, Sendra, Juan J.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión enviada para evaluación y publicación
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/150695
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/150695
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110567
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Mediterranean city
City decarbonisation
Historic city
Historic buildings
Residential heritage
Indoor Air Quality
Thermal comfort
Energy efficiency
Occupant behaviour
Cold indoors
Descripción
Sumario:Although European heritage buildings are excluded from energy efficiency targets, it would be beneficial to include the largest group, that of listed housing, in energy retrofit plans, in order to encourage its occupation and contributing to the sustainable maintenance of historic cities. This requires reliable experimental studies, which have been rare so far, in order to establish energy rehabilitation plans that do not jeopardize the conservation of their values. This paper aims to contribute to addressing this gap. It evaluates the energy performance and indoor environmental quality of dwellings within listed buildings of the conservation area of Seville, Spain, in the Mediterranean climate zone, under actual winter use and occupation conditions. An experimental campaign was conducted, generating energy models and measuring rates of indoor air temperature to validate them. The findings highlight important health and environmental issues: despite the mild winters of southern Spain, intensive use of the heating system is needed to maintain thermal comfort indoors, increasing polluting emissions; CO2 concentration in bedrooms is usually excessive overnight and, regularly, indoor relative humidity remains too high; heat losses depend entirely on the physical condition of the constructive elements (walls, roofs, air leakage and glazing) which occupants cannot easily improve.