The recent approval of the revision of EPBD directive, represents a challenge in Europe. Its application requires expertise for the companies involved in building refurbishing because they will be forced to adopt new technologies to comply with new regulations. The objective of the research is to study methods for building refurbishing, with particular focus on social housing, taking into account the energy transition and with attention to people's well-being and health. The research will use simulation and experimental measurements to identify dangerous situations related to high summer temperatures and to explore possible mitigation actions. The numerical part will exploit dynamic calculation systems capable of simulating the behavior of the building and plant systems and the integration of renewable sources. Heat waves and urban heat islands effects will be considered as well. The research will consider future climate by exploiting projections obtained from GCM-RCM simulations obtainable from the CORDEX platform. The methodologies will be applied to real cases during the period spent by the PhD student in a company and during a period of study abroad. The results will consider both the effect of refurbishing on energy consumption and high temperatures that can occur in internal environments without mechanical cooling systems. Alternative approaches, such as the use of fans will be considered for mitigating the heat risk on people in particular fragile people.

The candidate must have knowledge of phenomena related to thermodynamic and heat transfer in particular manner problems related to energy efficiency in buildings and buildings plants for Heat Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC). Previous experience in building simulations is appreciated especially if obtained in using dynamic simulation codes such as EnergyPlus, Trnsys and ESp-r is highly appreciated. The candidate should have or demonstrate interest in computational skills with ability in learning programming languages and writing scripts in particular using the Python language. Knowledge of Italian Language or willingness to learn it is highly recommended

The experimental facilities allow the researcher to perform various measurements related to the performance of the building envelope and HVAC systems. Measurements will be carried out on site in the university laboratory or in real buildings during renovation activities. The student will be placed in an environment with other students and postdoctoral researchers, as well as structured research staff. The student will use computers and servers with specialized numeric codes to carry out the research.