Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Sicily is particularly critical, because the existing building codes are not updated to
the new quality control system in building production and thus they only refer to
volumes, surface dimensions and heights (Vaccaro
2013
).
Based on the data about the EPC available from the regional department for
Energy (year 2012) and already discussed, more than 80 % of buildings show a
very low energy performance (G class
10
). Such indicator underlines how in the
Sicilian region the respect of the minimum energy requirements in buildings is still
unusual. Currently in Sicily the market and the production chain connected to
energy requalification of buildings is still not developed, there are no professional
skills in this area and the high education does not provide tools to update the
knowledge in the field of the future technicians and professionals.
Such contextual situation is more relevant in the small centres of the region,
where often the local building experience is strongly consolidated.
Going at local level, the main critical aspect is the missing knowledge and
understanding about the technical aspects supporting the energy efficiency issues.
Professionals that are not able to welcome innovation often manage the tech-
nical sections of administrations and the local stakeholders consequently are not
encouraged to update the way of working in the building sector.
The considerations above expressed are of basic importance to understand why
in Sicily, more than in other areas, it is essential a coordination carried out from
the regional department of Energy through suitable guidelines that can address the
annex of the municipal building code of each urban centre.
The aim is to give guidance to local administrations that want to revise their
Municipal Building Regulation in the light of sustainability and of the current legal
framework and obligations towards Europe.
The latter being the essential starting point for local incentive policies of
municipalities aiming at ''near zero energy building'' design.
Even if the annex to the municipal building regulation should only contain
improvement measures, as compared to the existing limits fixed by the current
legal framework, in the Sicilian context, the start of a transformation process must
first of all enable sustainable building, gradually producing a change within the
entire building production chain.
10
The energy classification of buildings in Italy, till now, was executed referring to the quantity
of primary energy per m
2
, required for heating and sanitary hot water production. The energy
scale for buildings ranging from A+ to G represents the index of global primary energy (EPgl)
given by the summation of the indices of energy performance for winter heating (EPi)—repre-
senting the energy consumed in one year to heat one m
2
—and for hot water production (EPacs).
The latter value depends, largely, for the production means, namely if it is employed a centralized
source or a local autonomous source, with gas supplied boiler or electrical boiler. It must then be
considered that, the average energy consumption of the buildings realized before 1977 in Italy it
is 200 7 250 kWh/m
2
per year (Class G). Such consumption must be compared with the average
energy consumption in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark of 20 7 50 kWh/mq per
