Opaque building envelope

The refurbishment of building opaque envelope represents an important approach for the reduction in global European energy consumption as prescribed by the Directive 2010/31/EU. Therefore, the knowledge of existing housing stock and their hygrothermal behaviour is necessary to define effective energy conservation measures. In this chapter, starting from the definition of the main thermal and hygrometrical parameters, a systematic analysis of the most common wall typologies in European construction is carried out for the definition of a structure catalogue. Moreover, for a set of envelope insulation interventions, the hygrothermal behaviour is evaluated and some diagrams for the assessment of the optimal intervention are defined. Finally, the incidence in terms of energy performance is tested considering a case study.