Description
Climate change is one of the most important environmental problems faced by Planet Earth. The majority of CO2 emissions come from burning fossil fuels for energy production and improvements in energy efficiency shows the greatest potential for any single strategy to abate global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the energy sector. Energy related emissions account for almost 80% of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions. The building sector is the largest energy user responsible for about 40% of the EU's total final energy consumption. In Europe the number of installed air conditioning systems has increased 500% over the last 20 years, but in that same period energy cooling needs have increased more than 20 times. The increase in energy cooling needs relates to the current higher living and working standards. In urban environments with low outdoor air quality (the general case) this means that in summer-time one cannot count on natural ventilation to reduce cooling needs. Do not forget the synergistic effect between heat waves and air pollution which means that outdoor air quality is worse in the summer aggravating cooling needs. Over the next few years this phenomenon will become much worse because more people will live in cities, more than 2 billion by 2050 and global warming will aggravate cooling needs.- An overview of materials to lessen the impact of urban heat islands- Excellent coverage of building materials to reduce air condtioning needs- Innovative products discussed such as Thermo and Electrochromic materials
Table of Contents
Ch 1- Introduction F. Pacheco-Torgal, University of Minho, PortugalPART I. PAVEMENTS FOR MITIGATING URBAN HEAT ISLAND EFFECTSCh 2 – Coating materials to increase pavement's surface reflectance N Xie, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Ch 3 – Pavements made of concrete with high solar reflectance Farhad Reza, University of California, USACh. 4 – Comparison of the performance of concrete and asphalt materialsH. Li, University of California, USAPART II. FACADE MATERIALS FOR REDUCING COOLING NEEDSCh. 5 – Green facades and living walls: vertical vegetation as a construction materialIrina Susorovo, Illinois Institute of Technology, USACh. 6 – Comparing the performance of different facade materialsN Alchapar, INCIHUSA, ArgentinaCh. 7 – Lotus ceramics for counteracting urban heat island effectsKiyoshi Okada, Tokyo Institute of Technology, JapanCh. 8 – Innovative evaporative cooling wallsAlessandro Carbonari, Università Politecnica delle Marche, ItalyPART III. ROOFING MATERIALS FOR REDUCING COOLING NEEDSCh. 9 – High albedo roof coatings for reducing cooling needsAnna Laura Pisello, University of Perugia, ItalyCh 10 – Solar cooling with hydrophilic porous materials for reducing cooling needsD. Karamanis, University of Ioannina, GreeceCh 11 - Cool green roofs for reducing cooling needsYann-Jou Lin, National Taiwan University, TaiwanCh 12 – Influence of damaged vegetation on the reduction of cooling needsA. F. Speak, The University of Manchester, UKCh 13 - Technical and economic analysis of green roofs to reduce cooling needs Fabrizio Ascione, University of Naples, ItalyPART IV. PCMS AND CHROMOGENIC SMART MATERIALS FOR REDUCING COOLING NEEDSCh. 14 – PCMs for reducing cooling needsLuisa F. Cabeza, University of Lleida, SpainCh. 15 - Nanomaterials embedded PCMs for reducing building cooling needsS.Kalaiselvam, Anna University, IndiaCh. 16 – Thermocromic materials for reducing cooling needs Claes Granqvist, Uppsala University, SwedenCh. 17 – Electrochromic walls for reducing cooling needsMarco Pittaluga, Cagliari University, ItalyCh. 18 – Electrochromic windows impact in the energy performance of buildings in Mediterranean climates: A case studyP.Tavares, INESC Coimbra, Portugal
