On the Retrofit of Existing Buildings with Aerogel Panels: Energy, Environmental and Economic issues

Among the super insulating materials, aerogel has interesting properties: very low thermalconductivity and density, resistance to high temperatures and transparency. It is a rather expensivematerial, but incentives in the field can improve its economic attractiveness. Starting from this, thethermal behavior of a test building entirely insulated with aerogel panels was investigated throughan extended experimental campaign. A dynamic simulation model of a case study building wasgenerated to better comprehend the energy savings obtained through aerogel in terms of energydemand over a whole year. The investigation was completed by computing the carbon and energypayback times of various retrofit strategies through a life cycle assessment approach, as well as bya cost-benefit analysis through a probabilistic financial framework. Compared to conventional insulationmaterials, aerogel is characterized by a higher energy and carbon payback time, but it guaranteesbetter environmental performance in the whole life cycle. From an economic-financial perspective,the aerogel retrofit is the best in the current tax incentive scenario. However, due to its higher lump-suminvestment, aerogel’s net present value is very sensitive to tax deductions, and it is riskier than thebest comparable materials in less favorable tax scenarios.