Historic Climate in Heritage Building and Standard 15757: Proposal for a Common Nomenclature

Research on the relationship between microclimate and heritage buildings or historic buildings has increased dramatically in the last few decades. Research has focused on indoor climate or indoor microclimate or the environment or micro-environment, and the field of these studies regards several variables, physical—air temperature, air speed, relative humidity—or chemical, dust, CO2, pollution, etc., all of which can have an effect or damage buildings or artifacts inside buildings. Moreover, all these variables should be monitored in a monitoring campaign following the standard EN 15757; in spite of this, scientific literature contains mistakes with regard to the words and objects of study. In this short contribution, the author proposes a common nomenclature in the research field of climate and microclimate in heritage buildings and heritage artifacts. A new nomenclature should be useful for the community of heritage scientists working on preventive measures to distinguish between climate and environment, or the object of study, e.g., the room (wall, wood structure, fresco, etc.) where the artifacts are or the air around them (painting, canvas, statue, piece of furniture, documents, books, etc.).

Reduction of the Economic Risk by Adaptation Measures to Alleviate Heat Stress in Confined Buildings for Growing-Fattening Pigs Modelled by a Projection for Central Europe in 2030

Economic risks for livestock production are caused by volatile commodities and market conditions, but also by environmental drivers like increasing uncertainties due to weather anomalies and global warming. These risks impact the gross margin of farmers and can stimulated investment decisions. For confined pig and poultry production, farmers can reduce the environmental impact by implementing specific adaptation measures to reduce heat stress. A simulation model driven by meteorological data was used to calculate heat stress impact as a projection for 2030. For a business-as-usual livestock building, the indoor climate for several adaptation measures was calculated. The weather-related value-at risk quantified the economic risks caused by global warming and the stochastic component of the weather. The results show that only energy-saving adaptation measures to reduce the inlet air temperature are appropriate to reduce the economic risk to the level of the year 1980. The efficiency of other adaptation measures to reduce heat stress is distinctly lower. The results in this study can support the decision making of farmers concerning adaptation management and investments. It can inform agricultural policy design as well as technological development.

Testing of a Radiant Wall Cooling System with Pipes Coupled to Aerated Blocks

Thermal output, surface temperatures, and supply and return water temperature were measured for a wall cooling system involving pipe attached to a wall section made of thermally insulating blocks. The experiment was performed for warm climatic conditions typical of, e.g., summer in Central and Northern Europe. The outdoor environment was simulated by a climatic chamber while the indoor climate was simulated by attaching a hotbox to the wall surface. The sensitivity of thermal output to several design parameters was investigated by 2D numerical simulations. The measurements showed a fast thermal response of the wall system. The cooling output was 38.3 W per m2 of the cooling area which equalled about 4.8 W/m2 per 1 K temperature difference between water and hotbox. The lowest surface temperature of 19.6 °C was measured at the pipe. Thus, the cooling output could be enhanced by reducing the surface temperature closer to the dew point temperature. The temperature of water in the pipe was very close to the surface temperature. It was illustrated how this characteristic of the wall cooling system tested positively affects the efficiency and cooling capacity of an air-to-water heat pump.

Effects of built environment on healing the mental health of the people–literature review

PurposeThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been reported to have a major impact on the mental health of an individual. Healing the mental stress, anxiety, depression and insomnia of an individual's immediate surroundings play a major role. Therefore, this study reviews how the built environment impacts the healing of an individual's state of mind.Design/methodology/approachVarious works of literature on healing environments were analysed to create frameworks that can facilitate psychological healing through architectural elements. Articles were selected from various journals like SAGE, PubMed, Journal of Applied and Computational Mechanics (JACM), Routledge Taylor and Francis, Journal of Contemporary Urban Affairs (JCUA), ScienceDirect, and Emerald databases, news articles, official web pages, and magazines that have been referred.FindingsIndicators (spatial, sensory comfort, safety, security, privacy and social comfort) are linked to sub-indicators (access, distractions and views) and design characteristics (indoor climate, interior view, outside view, privacy, communication, noise, daylighting, temperature) which help in better connection of the built environment with individual's mental health. From the above indicators, sub-indicators and design characteristics, the authors have come to a conclusion that a view to the outside with better social interaction has an in-depth effect on an individual's mental health.Research limitations/implicationsThis study predominantly talks about healing in hospitals but quarantining of COVID-19 patients happens in residences too. So, it is important to find the healing characteristics in residences and in which typology the recovery process is high.Originality/valueThis paper has been written completely by the author and the co-authors and has not been copied from any other sources.

A multiple Linear Regression Model to predict indoor temperature trend in historic buildings for book conservation: the case study of “Sala del Dottorato” in Palazzo Murena, Italy

The indoor climate of historic buildings is governed by the desire to preserve them, their interiors and to ensure human comfort. For preservation of cultural heritage and libraries, relative humidity and temperature are very important parameters, including their amplitudes and changes rate in time. In the present study an experimental campaign of thermo-hygrometric parameters inside of “Sala del Dottorato”, located in Palazzo Murena (Perugia), is carried out. In this room a great number of rare and ancient books are preserved. The paper deals with the study and the evaluation of the correlation between outdoor and indoor microclimate conditions in the room, to ensure the proper conservation of the books; it is aimed at understanding how the two parameters follow outdoor variations and how the hygrothermal inertia of the building can mitigate these variations. This is done, specifically for temperature, which is the most critical aspect. Thanks to a continuous monitoring system for indoor and outdoor thermo-hygrometric parameters, a Multiple Linear Regression model is developed in order to predict and analyse the indoor temperature trend. This model allows to estimate a future forecast of this parameter and to predict in advance critical conditions for correct conservation.

Study on Thermal Comfort in Industrial Buildings, Heated by Radiation

This paper is focused on a study between different heating systems commonly used in industrial installations. Industrial heating systems generally raise difficult problems in choosing the most economical system. If several solutions technically meet the requirements of the indoor climate, in terms of energy efficiency we must focus on the optimal solution. The study was conducted to choose the optimal heating solution for an industrial hall, from the point of view of evaluating the efficiency of the installation of an exhaust gas recirculation equipment. The heating of industrial premises generally raises difficult problems due to the diversity of the types of buildings encountered, the variety of activities carried out and the need to choose the most economical system, both in terms of investment and operation. The radiation heating system using natural gas offers the solution of this problem, in situations where the classic heating systems (hot air heating or static bodies) cannot ensure optimal indoor conditions (in the sense that they do not achieve a relatively uniform temperature in the heated space, cause drafts and have low yields). For spaces with a high height (over 4m) these systems can only be considered satisfactory in the case of general heating with very high energy consumption. From the study performed, but also from the specialized technical literature, it is concluded that these systems offer an energy saving, compared to the classical systems.

A large field study of relationship between indoor and outdoor climate in residential buildings

High-quality data on indoor climate and energy collected in buildings is required to deepen our understanding of building performance. The aim of this work was to investigate the relationship between the indoor and outdoor climate in Danish residential buildings. Field data was collected in 45 apartments from April 2019 to November 2020. Internet of things (IoT) devices were installed to record the temperature, relative humidity and CO2 concentration in the central corridor of each apartment. High CO2 concentration (above 1,000ppm) and overheating were observed in the apartments. The changeover between the heating mode and the free running mode occurred between 11.1 to 13.6°C of outdoor air temperature. The temperature setpoints of the heating systems were around 20.6-22.3°C, which could be useful values to feed building simulations in order to achieve more realistic predictions of indoor climate and energy. The results of this study improve our understanding of indoor environmental quality in residential buildings at a national level.

Hygrothermal assessment of internally insulated historic solid masonry walls with focus on the thermal bridge due to internal partition walls

This study investigated the hygrothermal performance of five insulation systems for internal retrofitting purposes. Focus was on the hygrothermal performance near partition brick walls compared to the middle of the wall. The setup comprised two insulated reefer containers with controlled indoor climate, reconfigured with several holes containing solid masonry walls with interior embedded wooden elements, an internal brick partition wall and different internal insulation systems, with and without exterior hydrophobisation. Relative humidity and temperature were measured over five years in the masonry/insulation interface and near the interior surface, in the centre of the test field and near the partition wall. In addition, calibrated numerical simulations were performed for further investigation of the thermal bridge effect. Findings for the masonry/insulation interface showed higher temperatures and lower relative humidity near the partition wall in comparison with the central part of the wall. Near the interior surface, measurements showed only minor differences between the two locations. The relative effect of the thermal bridge was smaller in the case of a high driving rain load on the exterior surfaces. The numerical simulations showed that the hygrothermal conditions were affected further away from the partition wall than what could be measured in the experimental setup.

Thermal comfort environment for migrants: a long-term follow-up climate chamber experiment

Migration between different climate regions may change people’s thermal experience and their thermal adaptation. However, few studies have explored the thermal adaptation process and the suitable indoor thermal environment of migrants. In this study, we conducted a long-term tracking comparative experiment on thermal adaptation of migrants moving from severe cold (SC) regions, hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) regions, and hot summer and warm winter (HSWW) regions to cold region of China. A two-year climate chamber experiment was conducted to follow migrants’ progressive thermal adaptation, such as different weeks, months and seasons after they migrated. The results show that the thermal sensation of migrants was significantly associated with their origin, the time after migration and air temperature. In addition, with the increase time after migration, the thermal sensitivity of HSCW and SC migrants showed a significant upward and downward trend, respectively. Two years after migration, the thermal comfort limits of migrants from SC, HSWW and HSCW were almost identical at 23.5-27.8°C, 23.8-27.8°C, and 23.5-27.6°C. The results provides insight to the progression of thermal adaptation and helpful to guide the design of indoor climate for immigrants with different thermal experiences.