Historical and World Heritage Buildings

This volume aims to prove the viability and the opportunity offered by retrofitting historical buildings through installation and application of Ground-Source Heat Pumps (GSHPs). The systems developed in the two projects Cheap-GSHPs and GEO4CIVHIC are minimum invasive and do not put any additional risk to historical building construction or architectural elements insuring at the same time limited environmental impact, operational efficiency, low noise emissions and reduction of operating costs. In this volume the basic principles, barriers, approaches and procedures are described, as well as the legislation at the base of the application of geothermal to historical buildings. Two European projects, Cheap-GSHPs and GEO4CIVHIC were focused on numerous historical buildings as case studies selected intentionally as relevant real or virtual demonstrators. The successful experience achieved through the application in historical sites selected to demonstrate the applicability and performance of geothermal to historical building the projects is shown to inspire the use of this renewable source for other historical sites, including UNESCO designated ones both within and outside Europe. In this volume, it is demonstrated how the use of geothermal energy systems facilitates the balancing effort between heritage significance and conservation as well as the installation of sustainable energy infrastructures, allowing suitable solutions to be identified. Finally, the results demonstrated that GSHPs are often among the best solutions to match the requirements of sustainable energy with the integrity and authenticity of the Cultural Heritage and its buildings, both in their interior and exterior features. In addition, the GSHP solutions found during the two projects, as they include a large portion of underground elements (i.e. the BHE field), have minimum visual impact, especially when compared with air source chillers and gas boilers, which include external elements (outer units or chimneys), which alter the appearance of the building envelope.