Dwelling’s energy saving through the experimental study and modeling of technological interventions in a cold temperate climate of Argentina

Abstract

The present work analyzes the potential of technological and economically feasible interventions performed to decrease the energy consumption in the building sector of the city of Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina (latitude 36° 27′ S and longitude 64° 27′ W). The overall aim of our study is to assess the thermal and energy behavior of a compact conventional construction dwelling in a cold temperate climate zone through in situ measurements, interviews with occupants, and modeling. The specific objectives are to analyze the results of experimental thermal energy monitoring in extreme weather seasons, to audit occupants’ use habits, to simulate and weigh the monitoring real data, to obtain the dwelling’s thermo-physical model, to study the interventions potential through low-energy design strategies (conservation and solar gain), and to carry out an economic analysis of the proposals. The results showed that an envelope with thermal insulation is feasible from the economic point of view when considering neighboring countries’ cost of natural gas (NG). In Argentina, the low value per m3 of NG entails recovering the investment aimed at improving the envelopes’ thermal energy behavior 64 years later, three times the envelopes’ thermal insulation life cycle.