Thermal bridge correction in energy refurbishing of civil existing buildings according to European minimum energy targets by 2020:pratical application to one case study,

The actual effort in Europe is refurbishing old buildings, improving their energy performances according to Kyoto protocol 20-20-20 (down 20% CO2 emissions, down 20% energy need increase of 20% renewable energies by 2020 ) and next Paris 2015 conference on climate Changes. Insulation is the first goal to achieve. In urban contest often is not possible to increase wall thickness with insulation covering because of the limited available distances among buildings and property border reasons. A possible technique of insulation is to fill the cavity wall air layer which is present in many existing buildings with granular isolated material. This type of work doesn’t improves thermal performance on thermal bridges with risk of mould grow. The purpose of the present paper is to study the optimal thickness and length of the correction to apply on the thermal bridge. A 2d model has been built to study the thermal behaviour of the complex structure. The paper presents the result of the study conducted by the author on the influence of thermal bridges in the case insulation in existing buildings in the inner part of the peripheral wall and the possible practical application in case, of thin existing layers available, for correction in accordance with the new targets of the European decree of minimum requirements in refurbished buildings by 2020. It is shown the importance of the extension of the thermal correction overlapping the insulation in the cavity rather than its thickness