Energy performance of green façades

Titolo Rivista RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA'
Autori/Curatori Fabiana Convertino, Angeliki Kavga, Ileana Blanco
Anno di pubblicazione 2023 Fascicolo 2022/2
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 12 P. 29-40 Dimensione file 199 KB
DOI 10.3280/RISS2022-002003
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Green façades consist of the application of vegetation on buildings’ vertical enve-lope. The integration of vegetation into the building fabric improves not only the aesthetic appearance, but also the energy performance of the building itself. The introduction of green façades mainly aims at a passive thermal control of build-ings’ for enhancing sustainability of the built environment. An experimental green façade was tested at the University of Bari, in a Mediterranean climate context. The experimental green façade was south-exposed and realized with evergreen plants, following the characteristics of the indirect typology. A portion of the south wall was left bare to be used as a control for comparison. The contribution of the green façade in terms of passive climate control was particularly relevant during summer. Vegetation affects the boundary climatic conditions and the surface temperature. A reduction in sensible air and surface temperature of up to 2.2°C and 6.7°C, respectively, was recorded. The wall behind vegetation received 95.6% less solar radiative energy than the bare wall. These results were a direct conse-quence of the two main cooling mechanisms that characterize the green façade, the evapotranspiration and the shading effect. These effects affected the heat transfer reducing the energy input through the covered wall. The reduction of the incoming heat through the covered wall was read as energy saving, since it inevita-bly affects the building energy demand for cooling. It was found that the green fa-çade allowed a mean daily energy saving of 1.1 MJ m-2 and that 90.9% of this was obtained at daytime. These findings contribute to increasing the knowledge of en-ergy functioning and of the real advantages provided by green façades.

Keywords:green infrastructure, building energy efficiency, energy saving, heat transfer, shading, evapotranspiration, cooling demand.

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  • Green urban transition: interdisciplinary insights on green façades design in hot climates as one of crucial strategies for low-carbon development Katarzyna Chojnacka, Barbara Widera, Marcel Macarulla, Anastasios Drougkas, Andreu Balastegui, Els Van de moortel, Cansu Iraz Seyrek Şık, Kajetan Sadowski, Joana Fernandes, Ricardo Gomes, Paulo Ferrão, in Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy /2024
    DOI: 10.1007/s10098-024-02957-1

Fabiana Convertino, Angeliki Kavga, Ileana Blanco, Energy performance of green façades in "RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA'" 2/2022, pp 29-40, DOI: 10.3280/RISS2022-002003