Energetic and economic assessment of technical solutions aimed at improving both energy and comfort performances of buildings in Mediterranean climates

Current research focuses on new high-performance façade components that, allowing active control of energy flows through the building envelope, fulfil comfort and energy conservation goals, but still have relevant costs in comparison to the economic savings deriving from the reduction of the energetic consumptions. The present work is aimed to verify the effective energetic and economic value of electro-chromic glazing systems, that, especially in Mediterranean Climates, could be adopted in order to improve both the energetic efficiency and the comfort performances of buildings. In order to appropriately take into account the building’s inertia effects and to evaluate the time fluctuations of both comfort parameters and energy consumptions, the analyses have been carried out in transient regime and the Energy Plus code was utilized. The study shows that, even if energy savings can be realized by the electro-chromic devices installation, an economic advantage will derive only after a substantial reduction of their costs.