Energy Equalization and the Case of the “nZEB Hotels”

Abstract

Nowadays, energy equalization is one of the many issues concerning the energy policies on the urban scale and in the perspective of reducing the Urban Heat Island effects (UHI-e). The different economic-financial profiles of the interventions implemented in the buildings having a wide range of climatic locations, typological arrangements, architectural-historical constraints, need to be coordinated within unitary local energy-environmental policies inspired by economic-financial as well as environmental issues. The renovation of existing hotels to achieve a nearly Zero-Energy performance is one of the goals of the 2050 EU’s energy policy. This paper presents the nZEB retrofit case of an existing historic hotel and proposes a step by step approach to nZEB performance with a perspective on the costs, in order to identify the most effective energy solutions. Such approach allows highlighting useful insights regarding energy and economic-financial strategies for achieving nZEB standards.