Architectural refurbishment to reduce CO2 emissions. Envelope's environmental potential in Mendoza, Argentina

CAROLINA GANEM; ESTEVES, ALFREDO; COCH, HELENA

Energy Procedia Journal

Elsevier

Año: 2013 vol. 1 p. 1 - 10

1876-6102

Buildings contribute half of the CO2 emissions sent into the atmosphere. Single family houses are a common residential choice in cities in Latin-America. In this type of construction, surface-to-volume ratio is high. This presents the potential opportunity to benefit from the available energy in the location of the building to reduce the non-renewable energy consumption. In Mendoza, Argentina (32º40?SL, 68º51?WL, 750m above sea level) the envelope must be flexible and adaptable to accomplish the passive goal in an annual and daily challenging continental temperate climate. For that purpose, the possibilities of environmental refurbishment of the envelope have been analysed for the most representative housing typology. The pursued methodology started with annual on-site air temperature, relative humidity and global radiation on horizontal plane measurements on a 15 minute basis. This thermal diagnosis was complemented with thermo-graphical images to identify strengths and weaknesses in constructive elements. With this information a thermal simulation model was developed and validated. The model was run with the different refurbishment options that attended constructive upgrades and also the inclusion of passive heating and cooling strategies, in order to obtain an approximation of the potential environmental benefits of upgrading the envelope. A sequential proposal of application is considered and the relative impact of each step is analysed. Results show a reduction in CO2 emissions of 78% in winter and 54% in summer with the application of the whole refurbishment proposal.