Assessment of energy saving in buildings by means of hybrid envelope systems

Active and passive solar strategies, together with measures of energy conservation and integration of new materials and technologies, can bring a meaningful energy saving in buildings. In particular, if combined with energy saving measures, the use of solar source can strongly reduce the demand of traditional energy sources. However, the use of such technologies is not sufficient if comfort demands of people who live or will live in the building are neglected and if the proposed technologies are not studied for their real suitability. Modern buildings require integrated solutions, not only to let each component work properly, but also to minimise the global costs of the building itself. The paper presents the results of some ITCs experiences. They have allowed to design, realise and test, through specifically defined methodologies, some innovative solar envelope technologies. The experimentation has been carried out both under real and controlled laboratory conditions. Besides, experimental data have been used to validate specifically developed mathematical models, that have allowed both to optimise some of the realised systems and to extend the analysis to the behaviour of the systems themselves under conditions different from the experimental ones.