Parametric Assessment of Energy, Environmental and Economic Performances of Building Envelope Technologies

The need to provide a guidance for technological options towards energy efficiency and economic affordability led to the definition of multi-criteria assessment frameworks that correlate the parameters of the building considering an extended view compared to the simple investment cost, which is the first driver of choice and the energy running cost that is the basis of the energy classification. The proposed methodology aggregates the energy consumption for the production of building materials and the consumption in the usage phase and the investment costs for the energy improvement and management of the building in such a way to include embodied energy, consumption and cost in a LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) and LCC (Life Cycle Cost) approach. The opportunity of the use of low environmental impact technologies, efficient in term of insulation and thermal mass such as to minimize the consumption and the cost, therefore, identify the best point of optimization to be evaluated, however, considering the climate of the site. The changing in the configuration of the opaque and transparent envelope rate and the amount of thermal insulation in the vertical and horizontal construction details is evaluated by parametric tools for dynamic simulation to assess the behavior of the test room.