Energy consumption in an Italian opera house: Analysis and possible reduction

The refurbishment of historic buildings is a complex task where the goal of obtaining a more energy efficient building often conflicts with the peculiar characteristics of the built environment, and its final destination. In this paper, the authors address this problem for a very specific type of building: a historic opera house located in Northern Italy. The results of energy consumption monitoring and spot measurements on selected loads are herein used as a basis to propose energy saving strategies.