Sustainable renovation of historical buildings

Funding: Swiss Competence Center for Energy and Mobility (CCEM)
Duration: 2009-2012

Historical buildings, if normally heated, cause relatively high energy consumption. As their façades need to be conserved, the thermal insulation of such buildings is difficult and risky. The moisture balance of walls has to be carefully considered besides the energy balance. Internal insulation that could effectively reduce thermal losses would hinder the drying process of walls. A careful risk assessment and robust guidelines have to be developed. A highly insulating light weight plaster finish based on aerogel particles, which insulates like polystyrene – inside or outside – but is open for moisture diffusion, is developed and tested in this project. Furthermore, appropriate heating systems and optimal solar integration are studied by LESO-PB.