The Role of Natural Ventilative Cooling in NZE Temporary and Emergency Shelters Design: a Mediterranean Case Study

Abstract

The paper presents a case-study of a pre-fabricated housing module built in Messina (Sicily, Italy) and the assessment of its energy performances under the net zero energy perspective. The potential of ventilative natural cooling application in the case-study is also investigated. Some particular features of the building - the modularity, the prefabrication, the rapidity of assembly, the possibility of being built on disconnected soils and the absence of maintenance - identify an effective use as a temporary housing solution for e.g. workers in proximity of an isolated working place or in emergency situations such as earthquakes and natural disasters. Monitoring studies were performed during some weeks in summer, the building was simulated in energy plus environment, validated obtaining small and acceptable differences between monitored and simulated data. Results identify the building as a plus zero energy building, with generation nearly doubling the overall electricity consumption. Natural ventilation in the hot Sicilian climate would prove efficient to reduce electricity consumption for cooling by 20% in a year mainly during mid-seasons but the design needs to be improved by including a more bioclimatic-oriented approach.