The pivotal role of moisture buffering effect in energy simulation of historic buildings

With the increasing awareness on the importance of energy efficiency in the building sector, the debate on sustainability about conservation and management of historic buildings is increasing. Building energy simulation software seems to provide accurate prediction of the building’s environmental response and can be used as diagnostic and prognostic tools. However, in historic buildings’ simulations, often the uncertainty increases due to the lack of information and the incorrect choice of the numerical model unable to adequately capture the real physical phenomena involved. In this work the effect of air infiltration in combination with the moisture buffering effect of materials, have been investigated using two different models in EnergyPlus software. The analysis carried out on the Salone dell’Armeria shows that the infiltration rate could be largely underestimated (about 3 times) when the buffering effect is neglected. Such phenomena could particularly affect historic buildings, generally characterized by massive structures and many furnishings.