Experimental Investigation on Green Roofs’ Thermal Performance in Turin (Italy)

Green roofs can offer benefits in energy savings for both heating and cooling demand with positive effects on the energy performance of buildings especially during summertime; in particularly, this technology can be considered as a passive cooling technique that attenuate the amount of incoming solar irradiation and cooling load. The purpose of the experimental analysis performed on green roofs is to evaluate the thermal performance of the entire technology in relation to its thickness, surface mass, thermal resistance, thermal inertia, moisture content in the same climatic condition. Many measurement campaigns on green roofs were carried out during heating and cooling seasons and different parameters were used to analyze their thermal behavior; some of these are measured and other are calculated and the measured parameters are closely tied to the climatic data in which measurement campaigns were carried out. Measured data have been calculated as function of calculated parameters and climatic data to assess the real thermal behavior of green roofs. With this research a mathematical model for the thermal behavior of green roofs and for the evaluation of temperatures in the soil has been identified.