Conference Agenda

The difficult financial conditions for energy efficiency have also been reflected in the operation of the buildings. All buildings attempt to reduce energy dependency and generate their own energy. The same is applied to historic buildings. The in-stallation of additional insulation or new windows are a major component in re-ducing the heating operation of the building. These new constructions will ensure a reduction in heat leakage but will also ensure a reduction in air intake. We change the conditions of the interior environment by adding new constructions. The original leaky opening structures provided us with air exchange. When reno-vating historic buildings, don't we have a problem with air exchange? An expen-sive air handling unit is necessary. Questions, possible solutions are solved in the article. The aim of this paper was the analysis of a selected historic building from the last century. Poor indoor air quality is associated with the occurrence of sick building syndrome symptoms, childhood asthma, allergic diseases and other res-piratory infections. This exposure leads to undesirable impact on the educational process. The aim of this study is to determine the condition of indoor environ-mental quality in selected renovated historical building using as lecture hall in Technical university campus through quantitative and qualitative de-termination of physical and chemical factors. The limit value of PM is set for 24-hour expo-sure was exceeded 13 times. The maximum permissible value for CO2 concentra-tion was exceeded in each of measurements. The highest value of CO2 concentra-tion war exceeded 2.86 times.

In Italy most of public buildings, and particularly educational ones, of both dated and recent construction lack a proper design and operation to guarantee adequate ventilation of indoor spaces leading to widespread thermal discomfort, poor IAQ and energy performance inefficiencies in both heating and cooling seasons. From these premises and considering the current situation with the rise in fuel and electricity prices, the need to enhance the energy performance and guarantee adequate indoor environmental conditions is becoming of primary importance for public administrations, especially concerning school buildings. Indeed, future retrofitting plans for schools should play a crucial role in leading effective comprehensive energy refurbishment plans for the whole building stock.

In this context, a case study is considered, focusing on a detailed analysis of various ventilation strategies in a public school building in the Alpin city of Bolzano, Italy. Built in 2014, the recently constructed high-performance building is provided with heating systems only, lacking any cooling or mechanical ventilation systems and relying on natural ventilation via manual windows opening. Due to its configuration and limited operation, poor indoor environmental quality and several energy management inefficiencies are encountered. The evaluation was based on comprehensive building data, including construction plans, site observations, and historical energy use, all of which allowed creating a detailed energy performance simulation model of a typical classroom in EnergyPlus. The model was then employed to simulate different ventilation scenarios. Specifically, custom Python scripts were integrated into EnergyPlus during the simulations using the EnergyPlus Python API, enabling the inclusion of models not initially supported, such as outdoor air exchange predictions for tilted windows and ventilation operation guided by recommendations via smart systems based on weather forecasts. This allowed the analysis of various scenarios including user-controlled natural ventilation strategies, accounting for differences in ventilation behaviours (such as the type, duration, and timing of window openings), and typical mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, etc. The resulting performance from the various scenarios was simulated and thoroughly analysed, examining how energy demand, air quality, and thermal comfort were affected by the different strategies during a typical heating and cooling season.

Finally, the work shows a comparison among the outcomes related to thermal comfort, air quality, energy consumption and cost predictions across the different ventilation systems, aiming at identifying effective strategies and solutions to serve as guidelines to support the public administration in the definition of energy retrofit plans for the local building stock.

Historic houses used as museums require stabilized indoor environmental conditions to prevent the degradation of presented objects and the building itself. For preventive conservation, the monitoring of indoor relative humidity and air temperature values may create a vital database revealing the damaging fluctuations. The insensitive interventions during the refunctioning process of historic buildings as museums which only consider architectural presentation aesthetics may lead to an increase in the climatized space volumes by HVAC elements to provide a stabilized relative humidity (RH) and air temperature level for the protection of presented objects. This results in an increase in energy consumption for the heritage building as well. This study aims to monitor RH and air temperature levels in a historic house used as a museum and propose implementations for stabilizing their preservation condition with minimum energy consumption through architectural interventions. The case study is in Izmir, Turkiye, which has hot-humid Mediterranean climate. It is a typical two-storey row house built in the beginning of the 20th century. It was registered as a heritage building in 1979 and refunctioned as Radio and Democracy Museum in 2013 after the restoration process. In different spaces, old radios with wood, metal, plastic, and wicker material combinations are displayed. Four representative spaces of the museum were monitored for five months during summer, fall and winter to collect the inside RH and air temperature values. The thermal model of the heritage building for the current state has been generated in DesignBuilder and calibrated according to the collected five-months data. Firstly, current energy consumption by HVAC element usage is determined. Then, to provide stabilized RH and temperature values suggested by the ASHRAE Standard, the schedules and set-point of the HVAC are rearranged and the energy consumption is derived. Lastly, since the authentic wooden doors separating the indoor spaces into different controllable zones were removed during the refunctioning, thermal modeling was repeated for the authentic separated zone version. In the last model, the amount of space to be air-conditioned for 24/7 decreased and the energy consumption rate has been compared with the previous model to determine which version is more advantageous for both the preventive conservation of heritage objects and for the energy use decrease. As a result, a management plan was developed summarizing the required interventions and actions for optimum preservation condition and energy consumption which can be a directive for the conscious operation of the museum environment.

Living walls are an intensive type of vertical greenery systems that provide significant benefits for thermal comfort, air quality, and the psychological well-being of building occupants. However, this specific type of Nature-based solutions requires high levels of maintenance, which are essential to ensure healthy and visually appealing vegetation. Different systems currently exist on the market and their technical complexity underscores the need for optimized irrigation, plants design, and lighting solutions. Despite the growing adoption of living walls, particularly indoors, limited research exists on monitoring methods that could facilitate proper maintenance.

In this context, this study explores the use of Hyperspectral Imaging to monitor vegetation health of Living walls and detect early stress indicators prior to visible symptoms.

This pilot hyperspectral monitoring system was tested on two Living walls prototypes installed in a controlled climatic chamber. Environmental parameters, including air temperature, relative humidity, and CO₂ concentrations, were constantly monitored to isolate specific stress factors.

Preliminary results revealed changes in plant health and growth across different wall portions and plant species, providing insights into the evolution of living walls under controlled conditions.

These findings highlight the potential for hyperspectral imaging as an innovative tool for support future automatically maintained systems, advancing the efficiency of indoor living wall systems. In addition, future applications of this monitoring system, combining hyperspectral vegetation indices with CO2 removal rates, could enable the development of predictive models to quantify greenhouse gas sequestration relative to plant health indices under different climatic conditions.

Thermal comfort can be defined as a state in which people feel neither too hot nor too cold. Many factors affect how people feel in closed spaces. The issue of which is more or less important has been discussed for several decades. These include both climatic conditions and human conditions related to clothing and occupation. The essence of research on thermal comfort in a room is to strive for this comfort to be felt simultaneously by as many people in the room as possible. Of course, due to the diversity of perception, it is usually not possible for all users to feel the full thermal comfort of the room. In the case of rooms with internal conditions that depend on the number of people and the intensity of use, e.g. academic computer rooms, achieving thermal comfort may be more difficult.

The research was conducted in the computer laboratory at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. It consisted of recording indoor climate parameters (air temperature and relative humidity, ambient radiation temperature, and airspeed), and outdoor temperature for 5.5 months, from the end of November 2023 to mid-May 2024. The period coincided with the lowest outdoor temperature in January and higher spring temperatures. This was the heating period, but in the case of high outdoor temperatures, the room was not heated. This period allowed for collecting information on thermal comfort in winter and spring. Based on the recorded data, the values ​​of the PMV and PPD indicators were determined and compared with the results of a survey conducted among the room users. Possible scenarios for improving thermal comfort in the room were determined.

The phenomenon of uneven performance of mechanical heating circles in histori-cal buildings, resulting in significant differences of energy demand and occupant comfort is present within several buildings of BME (Budapest University of Technology and Economics), To help identify the issues and understand the op-eration of a building with several heating circles and various profiles in each, while educational, laboratory and administrative tasks run uninterrupted, a need for monitoring systems arise.

In these historical buildings, it is rarely possible to implement wire powered monitoring systems, while wi-fi coverage may also not be sufficient. The aim was to implement a wireless monitoring system whose endpoints are accumulator powered and use a communication protocol which does not require internet con-nection, while being able to send and receive data through dense constructions within a district area of examination.

A wireless monitoring system was developed to use in BME Building F, us-ing Long Range Wide Area Networking (LoRaWAN) technology applied on Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontrollers with various appliances to examine connec-tion between hygrothermal conditions, CO2 concentration and occupancy pat-terns. Data collection was managed by a LoRaWAN Gateway operated by a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B logging data locally and online, providing remote log availability. To provide portability and reliable conveyance of the endpoint devic-es, sensor boxes were modelled and 3D printed.

With several devices installed in the building, it is possible to log indoor air quality and occupancy data. Applied devices were calibrated with certified equipment, and based on the collected data, occupant- and hygrothermal charac-teristics of the site were examined.

The developed system is applicable to any site, where wire powered monitor-ing is not possible, while a need for long time logging is present. Finite element dynamic energy and comfort simulations might be also possible based on the data collected, giving realistic insight on the construction, while the opportunity to ex-amine airtightness of structures based on internal air quality data also arose.