Traditional houses with stone walls in temperate climates: the impact of various insulation strategies

The present chapter focuses on the yearly behaviour of a traditional farmhouse in a temperate Italian climate and analyses the impact of alternative energy saving strategies on summer comfort and winter consumptions. The aim of the current study was to: - identify combinations of thermal insulation interventions which: optimise winter energy saving and summer internal comfort without modifying the close relationship between architecture and specific climate typical of traditional buildings; respect the building material consistency and the façades aesthetic appearance. - compare the performance of this traditional architecture (after the retrofit intervention) with that of a modern building, of the type encouraged by new energy saving legislation (lightweight and super-insulated). To that aim a series of monitoring activities in summer and in winter were carried out to investigate the internal environmental conditions and to calibrate a simulation model with the software Energyplus. This model was used to assess the impact of various energy-saving strategies on winter energy consumptions and summer comfort with the method of Percentage outside the comfort range (EN 15251:2007-08).