New green facades as passive systems for energy savings on buildings

The new technologies of plants integration on buildings offer new possibilities from the sustainable construction point of view, especially in energy savings. In previous studies the great capacity of double-skin green facade or green screen to intercept solar radiation was confirmed, observing differences up to 18 degrees C in surface temperatures between sunny and shade areas on the wall of the building. The experiment presented here consists of two identical house-like cubicles (3 x 3 x 3 m) located in Puigverd de Lleida, Spain. The only difference between the two cubicles is the double-skin green facade installed in one of them. In a first step only the South wall was covered by a provisional green facade. As the results from first experiment were positive with interesting low electrical energy consumptions when only the 50% of the South wall was covered by plants, a new stable green facade was built covering the South, East and West facades by a deciduous specie well adapted to the Mediterranean Continental climate. With this study the confirmation of the good operation of green facades made with deciduous species as passive system for energy savings in buildings is expected to be characterized. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.