Energy assessment for a new urban settlement

The paper concerns the definition of guidelines in the design of a new urban settlement, based on system energy utilization and building environmental impacts and sustainability improvement. The study refers to a 160000 m2 area sited on the outskirts of Carmagnola, a city close to Torino, where the municipality decided to locate about 1260000 m3 of commercial buildings: offices, shopping centres, a trade fair area, a cattle market, a multi-hall cinema, hotels, restaurants, industrial sheds. A district heating system, to which most of the buildings will be connected, is under construction as well. The study is aimed at enhancing energy efficiency in building and HVAC systems. The first step consists in the definition of the new buildings, in order to predict the required energy for heating and cooling under design conditions and under seasonal conditions, for system sizing and energy consumption estimates. In a second phase a listing of all feasible design solutions, both on
the envelope and on HVAC system is provided. The last phase consists in comparisons of the alternatives, in order to assess a feasibility analysis. Finally a case study is considered, carrying out a more detailed energy analysis of a shopping centre.