This book examines ways of saving energy by using green roofs and facades, solar devices such as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), and thermal solar panels, as components of energy-efficient building envelopes. The author takes an interdisciplinary / multidisciplinary approach to the subject that analyzes several different scientific fields connected to building research-sustainability, sustainable architecture, energy efficiency in buildings, and building envelopes-while approaching other collateral domains, including history, archaeology, botanics, physics, engineering, and landscape architecture. Alternative Envelope Components for Energy-Efficient Buildings will be a welcome resource for researchers, students, and postgraduates in the fields of energy, building materials, and renewable energy, as well as architects, engineers, and specialists in industries related to building products. Looks at the impact of building envelopes on energy usage; Offers readers an introduction to the principles of sustainability; Presents passive and active approaches to using solar devices.

This book examines ways of saving energy by using green roofs and facades, solar devices such as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), and thermal solar panels, as components of energy-efficient building envelopes. The author takes an interdisciplinary / multidisciplinary approach to the subject that analyzes several different scientific fields connected to building research—sustainability, sustainable architecture, energy efficiency in buildings, and building envelopes—while approaching other collateral domains, including history, archaeology, botanics, physics, engineering, and landscape architecture. Alternative Envelope Components for Energy-Efficient Buildings will be a welcome resource for researchers, students, and postgraduates in the fields of energy, building materials, and renewable energy, as well as architects, engineers, and specialists in industries related to building products. Looks at the impact of building envelopes on energy usage; Offers readers an introduction to the principles of sustainability; Presents passive and active approaches to using solar devices.

Advanced Building Envelope Components: Comparative Experiments focuses on the latest research in innovative materials, systems and components, also providing a detailed technical explanation on what this breakthrough means for building exteriors and sustainability. Topics include a discussion of transparent envelope components, including intelligent kinetic skins, such as low-e coatings, high vs. low silver content in glass, solar control coatings, such as silver vs. niobium vs. tin, and more. In addition, opaque envelope components are also presented, including opaque dynamic facades, clay lining vs. plasterboard and nano clayed foams. - Includes real case studies that explore, in detail, the behavior of different envelopes - Presents laboratory tests on existing insulation (if any, through samples extracted on-site) to quantify actual performances - Provides the tools and methods for comparing, selecting and testing materials and components for designing effective building envelopes - Covers both transparent and opaque envelope components, as well as opaque dynamic facades

This book results from a Special Issue published in Energies, entitled “Building Thermal Envelope". Its intent is to identify emerging research areas within the field of building thermal envelope solutions and contribute to the increased use of more energy-efficient solutions in new and refurbished buildings. Its contents are organized in the following sections: Building envelope materials and systems envisaging indoor comfort and energy efficiency; Building thermal and energy modelling and simulation; Lab test procedures and methods of field measurement to assess the performance of materials and building solutions; Smart materials and renewable energy in building envelope; Adaptive and intelligent building envelope; and Integrated building envelope technologies for high performance buildings and cities.

The design and construction of the appropriate building envelope is one of the most effective ways for improving a building's thermal performance. Thermal Inertia in Energy Efficient Building Envelopes provides the optimal solutions, tools and methods for designing the energy efficient envelopes that will reduce energy consumption and achieve thermal comfort and low environmental impact. Thermal Inertia in Energy Efficient Building Envelopes provides experimental data, technical solutions and methods for quantifying energy consumption and comfort levels, also considering dynamic strategies such as thermal inertia and natural ventilation. Several type of envelopes and their optimal solutions are covered, including retrofit of existing envelopes, new solutions, passive systems such as ventilated facades and solar walls. The discussion also considers various climates (mild or extreme) and seasons, building typology, mode of use of the internal environment, heating profiles and cross-ventilation - Experimental investigations on real case studies, to explore in detail the behaviour of different envelopes - Laboratory tests on existing insulation to quantify the actual performances - Analytical simulations in dynamic conditions to extend the boundary conditions to other climates and usage profiles and to consider alternative insulation strategies - Evaluation of solutions sustainability through the quantification of environmental and economic impacts with LCA analysis; including global cost comparison between the different scenarios - Integrated evaluations between various aspects such as comfort, energy saving, and sustainability

This book results from a Special Issue published in Energies, entitled “Building Thermal Envelope"". Its intent is to identify emerging research areas within the field of building thermal envelope solutions and contribute to the increased use of more energy-efficient solutions in new and refurbished buildings. Its contents are organized in the following sections: Building envelope materials and systems envisaging indoor comfort and energy efficiency; Building thermal and energy modelling and simulation; Lab test procedures and methods of field measurement to assess the performance of materials and building solutions; Smart materials and renewable energy in building envelope; Adaptive and intelligent building envelope; and Integrated building envelope technologies for high performance buildings and cities.

Handbook of Energy Efficiency in Buildings: A Life Cycle Approach offers a comprehensive and in-depth coverage of the subject with a further focus on the Life Cycle. The editors, renowned academics, invited a diverse group of researchers to develop original chapters for the book and managed to well integrate all contributions in a consistent volume. Sections cover the role of the building sector on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, international technical standards, laws and regulations, building energy efficiency and zero energy consumption buildings, the life cycle assessment of buildings, from construction to decommissioning, and other timely topics. The multidisciplinary approach to the subject makes it valuable for researchers and industry based Civil, Construction, and Architectural Engineers. Researchers in related fields as built environment, energy and sustainability at an urban scale will also benefit from the books integrated perspective. - Presents a complete and thorough coverage of energy efficiency in buildings - Provides an integrated approach to all the different elements that impact energy efficiency - Contains coverage of worldwide regulation

The correct design of the building envelope, including an informed choice of materials and their thermal properties, is a key requisite to conjugate energy efficiency, the durability of the envelope, and the indoor microclimate. Firstly, this process involves a strategic selection of building materials based on their thermal properties and performance. Designers should then adopt a multi-scale approach, both evaluating the thermal performance of individual envelope components and optimizing their overall energy efficiency. This activity should be assisted by reliable software tools that are also able to simulate advanced envelope solutions and must be complemented by effective and original evaluation methods to identify the best performing solution. In situ and laboratory measurements are recommended if possible since they can significantly improve the accuracy of the analysis. The following reprint presents advanced research and methodologies regarding the above-mentioned topics, ranging from the thermal performance of the building envelope to the energy optimization of buildings and the integration of renewable energies in the building envelope.

Building-envelope design is an information-intensive process that requires experiential knowledge. Confronted with such a process, a human expert adds to well-known domain knowledge his own experience, or the experience of others, to support his reasoning process and guide him in typical situations. The problem-solving paradigm where reasoning is supported by reusing past experiences is called Case-Based Reasoning (CBR), and it was added to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) methodology following research in cognitive psychology. Instead of relying solely on general knowledge of a problem domain, or making associations along generalized relationships between problem descriptors and conclusions, CBR is able to utilize the specific knowledge of previous experienced problem situations called cases. CBR is a technology that solves problem by storing, retrieving, and adapting past cases. CBR systems have been proposed as an alternative to rule-based systems whenever the knowledge engineering process of eliciting rules is difficult or unmanageable. Instead, many experiences (or cases) with solutions, warnings, plans, and so forth are collected and new situations are related to a stored recollection of these past cases. New solutions are adapted from the old ones. Research in Knowledge-Based Expert Systems (KBES) for building-envelope design has shown a similar trend. While computerized assistance was imposed by the large amount of data to be processed, domain knowledge. Such fields where most of the knowledge is based on experience are often labeled as "weak theory domains," and they are prime candidates for adopting a CBR approach. This thesis proposes a CBR framework for selecting the construction alternatives during the preliminary stage of the building-envelope design process. The methodology presented aims to find the most suitable design for a new building envelope from a library of prototypical building cases and adapts it to meet the requirements of ASHRAE Standard 90.1/1989 for energy efficient building design. The study outlines the potential benefits of using CBR technology and the key issues encountered while attempting to define the CBR model for building-envelope design. Developing a hierarchy of building-envelope components identifies cases and features for design. The envelope design problem is solved through decomposition, and by combining case-based and rule-based reasoning methods. In searching for a best match to achieve a higher degree of case filtering, a connection between case-based reasoning and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is proposed. An ANN-based filtering mechanism is designed to improve the quality of case-matching outcome while enforcing the economy of case representation. The framework proposed by this research has been implemented into the CRED software system demonstrating the feasibility and advantages of using CBR methodology for building envelope design. CRED blends several Al techniques (such as ANN, CBR and KBES) while aiming to offer expert assistance to building design professionals for browsing and selecting building-envelope alternatives.