Ricerc@Sapienza

This work shows the results of a research activity aimed at characterizing the energy habits of Italian residential users. In detail, by the energy simulation of a buildings sample, the opportunity to implement a demand/response program (DR) has been investigated. Italian residential utilities are poorly electrified and flexible loads are low. The presence of an automation system is an essential requirement for participating in a DR program and, in addition, it can allow important reductions in energy consumption.

The paper deals with hydroponic greenhouses that can be used both for crops cultivation and as a space for hosting events, thanks to its transformability characteristics. The project combines the concepts of circular economy and agricultural activity, creating environmentally sustainable hydroponic greenhouses, from the design to the management phase, thanks to the use of a multidisciplinary BIM approach (Building Information Modelling).

Users' load aggregation, control of smart appliances, and exploitation of thermal inertia of buildings are among key elements to improve the energy demand of buildings, toward the goals of near zero energy buildings. In this paper, we investigated a case study of an existing residential and commercial building with a microgrid and advanced technical and control systems. We have developed a model to simulate loads and the effects of control systems.

The energy requalification of existing buildings entails the fulfillment of different, often conflicting, criteria, such as the reduction of the specific annual energy demand, the containment of the construction costs, the decrease in the annual energy operating cost and the reduction of climate-change gas emissions. Therefore, optimization methods based on the application of computational algorithms are essential to determine solutions that meet multi-objective criteria and so highly optimized to be on the Pareto frontier.

This study wants to examine the current bibliography concerning the thermohygrometric perception in aged people living in industrialized countries and its socio-economic consequences. Nowadays the number of European people between 70 and 90 years old is increasing, thus causing an aging of the average population. A proper and modern planning of indoor environments in residential buildings requires the presence of a good thermohygrometric comfort together with a low energy consumption level.

The present paper is a review on efficiency issues related to three important sectors of the transportation systems: railways, electrical vehicles, and marine. For the three sectors, the authors, in reference of their knowledge and research area, show the results of a wide literature analysis, in order to highlight which are the measures, in terms of technological solutions and management techniques, which are recently investigated and implemented, for improving the three transportation systems, from the point of view of efficiency.

An energy management information system (EMIS) combines software, hardware, and data to support people in their efforts to manage energy at the process, system, facility, and enterprise level, year after year. A distributed measurement and monitoring system (DMS) is a fundamental part of an EMIS; it is constituted by the meters distributed in the switchboards of the power system. This article suggests a method of assessment of a DMS based on an indicator called level of coverage (LOC).

Distributed Monitoring Systems (DMS) are essential to implement global policies and daily practices to preserve and improve the energy efficiency of an organization. The Level of Coverage (LoC) is a primary aspect in design, evaluation and implementation/extension of a DMS. The LoC is a numeric indicator representing the ability of a DMS to properly monitor the energy consumption/production in specific Zones and for particular Uses. It allows comparison and choice among several DMS implementations, differing for number and positioning of the measuring instruments.

Transport is a main source of pollutants in cities, where air quality is a major concern. New transport technologies, such as electric vehicles, and public transport modalities, such as urban railways, have arisen as solutions to this important problem. One of the main difficulties for the adoption of electric vehicles by consumers is the scarcity of a suitable charging infrastructure. The use of the railway power supplies to charge electric vehicle batteries could facilitate the deployment of charging infrastructure in cities.

Eco-driving is one of the most important strategies for significantly reducing the energy consumption of railways with low investments. It consists of designing a way of driving a train to fulfil a target running time, consuming the minimum amount of energy. Most eco-driving energy savings come from the substitution of some braking periods with coasting periods. Nowadays, modern trains can use regenerative braking to recover the kinetic energy during deceleration phases.