Impact of Building Envelope Retrofit on Primary Energy Consumption for Space Cooling with Climate Change

This study investigates traditional energy measures impact on primary energy consumption for cooling (PEC<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">c</inf>) and carbon emissions for four residential buildings, i.e., apartment block, multi-family building, single-family house, terraced house, across four Italian climatic zones, i.e., B, C, D, E. These buildings are analyzed under current and future (2050) climatic conditions, thus evaluating individual and combined retrofit measures effectiveness, i.e., walls and roof insulation, window replacement, cool roofs. The results highlight significant increase in cooling demand across all scenarios, with the most substantial impact observed in less compact buildings (SFH, TH) due to their high shape ratio. While energy retrofit strategies reduce energy demand today, their efficiency diminishes in the future due to higher thermal stress. The findings emphasize climate-adaptive building design, integrating passive and active cooling strategies. Future research will explore novel advanced materials application on buildings, e.g., offices, to investigate climate change impact and possible resilience design strategies.