Exploiting renovation strategies, passive cooling and control systems for pleasant and efficient residential buildings

• Autores: Rafael Antonio Monge Palma
• Directores de la Tesis: Servando Alvarez Domínguez (dir. tes.), José Sánchez Ramos (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad de Sevilla ( España ) en 2026
• Idioma: inglés
• Número de páginas: 134
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: Idus
• Resumen

  • Europe’s transition toward decarbonisation has highlighted the urgent need to renovate its ageing building stock, most of which predates modern building codes. In Spain, over 90% of buildings were constructed before the first EPBD (2002), with renovation rates remaining below 1%. The vulnerability of existing buildings is increasingly exposed by successive extreme weather events, particularly the growing frequency and intensity of heat waves. This PhD thesis establishes a coherent framework that connects the assessment of the current building stock with the development of resilient and intelligent solutions for future buildings. Beginning with a comprehensive evaluation of existing building energy profiles, the research identifies the impacts of upgrading the building stock and defines optimal renovation pathways under diverse constraints. Recognising that most residential buildings are naturally conditioned, the work assesses their thermal resilience before and after renovation, revealing that current building energy codes inadvertently produce buildings more prone to overheating. To address this issue and the limited effectiveness of natural ventilation-based cooling strategies, the thesis proposes an innovative passive cooling roof system that combines night ventilation and evaporative cooling to enhance cold storage in the building’s thermal mass and improve comfort in naturally conditioned spaces. The efficient operation of these nature-based solutions is achieved by analysing state-of-the-art building control strategies, evaluating commercial control systems, and developing a unified framework with a physical model and control architecture for a double-skin roof system. Together, these contributions create a methodological bridge from understanding the current state of the building stock to designing adaptable, resource-efficient, and intelligently controlled naturally conditioned buildings for the future.