Comparison between monitoring and simulating. An important step forward for model reliability

The new European regulations on energy saving were aimed at a reduction in consumption in the winter phase. This caused even warm countries such as Italy to use envelopes optimised for the winter phase only which are nevertheless unsuitable to the other seasons. The research was developed in order to understand the total yearly behaviour of different envelopes in Mediterranean climates. It started from a real case subject to: (i) monitoring; (ii) simulation of the as-built state for tuning up the software (ENERGYPLUS); (iii) parametric analysis. The research stressed the importance of the second step in calibrating the virtual model. The first simulation showed considerable differences between monitored and calculated values. Such differences were removed through gradual steps of input setting. The report shows said steps and how each input variation affected temperature values