Urban areas usually experience higher temperatures when compared to their rural surroundings. Several studies underlined that specific urban conditions are strictly connected with the Urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon, which consists in the environmental overheating related to anthropic activities. As a matter of fact, urban areas, characterized by massive constructions that reduce local vegetation coverage, are subject to the absorption of a great amount of solar radiation (short wave) which is only partially released into the atmosphere by radiation in the thermal infrared (long wave). On the contrary, green areas and rural environments in general show a reduced UHI effect, that is lower air temperatures, due to evapo-transpiration fluxes. Several studies demonstrate that urban microclimate affects buildings’ energy consumption and calculations based on typical meteorological year could misestimate their actual energy consumption. In this study, two different sets of meteorological data are used for the calculation of the heating and cooling energy needs of an existing university building. The building is modeled using TRNSYS v.17 software. The first set of data was collected by a weather station located in the city center of Modena, while the second set of data was collected by another station, located in the surrounding area of the city, near to the studied building. The influence of the different meteorological situations described by the two weather stations are analyzed and assumed to be representative of the UHI effect. Furthermore, the effects of UHI mitigation strategies on the building energy needs are evaluated and discussed

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This article presents and discusses an outdoor Test Reference Environment (TRE) for double skin applications of Building Integrated PhotoVoltaic (BIPV) Systems.From the experience gained during the past 20 years in several EC research projects, an experimental tested design for a common Test Reference Environment is proposed. This outdoor test set-up allows the assessment of experimental data for electrical and thermal performance evaluation of photovoltaic systems integrated as double skin applications in the building envelope. The specific design of the Test Reference Environment makes it possible to study in a harmonised way through electrical and thermal energy flow analysis, the impact of different materials for PV modules and construction design of building envelopes. The energy balance for BIPV double skin applications is presented as well.The experimental data has been used for validation of modelling work by several academic groups which has resulted in an improved knowledge on the heat transfer, in particular the convective heat exchange coefficient for the specific double skin boundary conditions.