Energy saving by means of innovative building envelope systems

Nowadays, one of the main goals of the building industry and architecture is to exploit the solar source for the air‐conditioning of buildings. Over the last years many activities have started to develop new building and plant technologies oriented to energy saving by improving indoor comfort and reducing pollution emission. The guidelines deriving from various world conferences (Kyoto 1997, Buenos Aires 1998) are known. Industrial countries have committed themselves to try and carry out new strategies to reduce both energy consumption and air‐pollution. These aims have increased research works oriented to find materials, components and systems able to use energy gains from the environment, in particular from the sun. During the study carried out at ITC on the subject, two envelope technologies have been studied and realised. The paper describes such technologies and the methods used for their characterisation. It also reports on the most meaningful results obtained from the experiments carried out.