The assessment of energy behavior of existing buildings as a part of organic upgrade of their performances.

The reduction of buildings energy consumptions is a key factor towards sustainable development. The current legislation promotes and incentives upgrade interventions that involve only single constructive elements A holistic approach must play again a key role in improving buildings stock sustainability. In the paper different research experiences aimed at improving such an approach to assess energy performance and upgrade it are described and their results summarized

The building information modeling for the retrofitting of existing buildings. A case study in the University of Cagliari.

Italy's very consistent buildings stock has become the major field for real estate investments and for the related projects and actions. The urge of working on built environment is however facing some crucial issues. The first is the lack of documentation on the construction history and on the real constructive layout of existing buildings (in terms of components, installations, plants, etc.). The second is the poor activity in surveying their current status, with reference to use (energy behaviour, real consumptions, etc.) and maintenance (conservation status, previous maintenance works, compliance with current regulations, etc.). These obstacles cause a deep inefficiency in the planning, programming and controlling of requalification and/or refunctionalisation works. Starting from these assumptions, this paper shows the findings of a research shared by the Politecnico of Milan and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture of the University of Cagliari. It is aimed at testing the use of building information modeling (BIM) to structure the necessary knowledge to evaluate intervention scenarios. The research is focused on the Mandolesi Pavilion of the University of Cagliari, designed by Enrico Mandolesi. It is a highly stimulating architectural object because it incorporates values that require a conservative approach, but at the same time, like most contemporary buildings, it was designed and built for innovation and not for “long duration”. The work has actually led to the realization of a BIM model of the case study. It represents the first prefiguration of an approach that develops from construction history and continues with advanced diagnostics on the statical and energy performances of the building. The model formalizes knowledge and information on a significant building, aimed at its management. It allows also the setting of intervention scenarios that can be evaluated with real-time simulations of cost, time and ROI

BIM and IoT Sensors Integration: A Framework for Consumption and Indoor Conditions Data Monitoring of Existing Buildings

The low accessibility to the information regarding buildings current performances causes deep difficulties in planning appropriate interventions. Internet of Things (IoT) sensors make available a high quantity of data on energy consumptions and indoor conditions of an existing building that can drive the choice of energy retrofit interventions. Moreover, the current developments in the topic of the digital twin are leading the diffusion of Building Information Modeling (BIM) methods and tools that can provide valid support to manage all data and information for the retrofit process. This paper shows the aim and the findings of research focused on testing the integrated use of BIM methodology and IoT systems. A common data platform for the visualization of building indoor conditions (e.g., temperature, luminance etc.) and of energy consumption parameters was carried out. This platform, tested on a case study located in Italy, is developed with the integration of low-cost IoT sensors and the Revit model. To obtain a dynamic and automated exchange of data between the sensors and the BIM model, the Revit software was integrated with the Dynamo visual programming platform and with a specific Application Programming Interface (API). It is an easy and straightforward tool that can provide building managers with real-time data and information about the energy consumption and the indoor conditions of buildings, but also allows for viewing of the historical sensor data table and creating graphical historical sensor data. Furthermore, the BIM model allows the management of other useful information about the building, such as dimensional data, functions, characteristics of the components of the building, maintenance status etc., which are essential for a much more conscious, effective and accurate management of the building and for defining the most suitable retrofit scenarios

Web-Based Management of Public Buildings: A Workflow Based on Integration of BIM and IoT Sensors with a Web–GIS Portal

In this paper, we present the final results from the research project “Urban Abacus of Building Energy Performances (Abaco Urbano Energeticodegli Edifci–AUREE)” aimed at supporting the renovation process and energy efficiency enhancement of urban building stocks. The crux of the AUREE project is a Web–GIS GeoBlog portal with customized semantic dashboards aimed at sharing information on an urban built environment and promoting the participation of local stakeholders in its improvement. As the latest development of this research, a workflow that integrates the AUREE portal with BIM authoring and an open-source IoT platform is implemented and applied to an experimental case study concerning a public building in Carbonia (Italy). The headquarters of the Sotacarbo Sustainable Energy Research Center was selected as the case study. The presented results proved that it was possible to create a valid open system, which was accessible to both specialist and unskilled users, and aimed at guiding, through a progressive knowledge deepening, common end-users toward proper conscious “energy behaviors” as well as public administrations and decision-makers toward sustainable facility management. Later, the proposed open system could also be suitable to be used as an effective tool to support the rising “energy communities”