Cool materials and cool roofs: Potentialities in Mediterranean buildings

Abstract

The Mediterranean is a complex region, with differences in terms of environmental hazards, population growth, urban sprawl and economic development. The climate change affects all of the area and common risks are already detected. An urban heat island was monitored in a large and medium urban area. The energy end uses in buildings are another crucial point, even if with different situations and perspectives between European countries and North African and Middle East countries. The common trend is the dramatic increase of electricity consumption for cooling the buildings, a trend bound to increase in the next few years because of the energy demand of transition economies. Passive building technologies may be fruitfully applied to mitigate the cooling demand increase, reducing the energy consumption in cooled buildings and improving the thermal comfort in not-cooled buildings. Cool materials stay cool under the sun because of high solar reflectance and thermal emittance. A review of the products and technologies available on the market or in an advanced research state is performed. A study demonstrates the positive impact of the technology in terms of cooling and total energy savings as well as on the indoor thermal conditions in Mediterranean buildings.

Keywords:

• passive cooling
• solar materials
• thermal comfort
• urban heat island mitigation