# Monitoring a Pre-Normative Multi-Family Housing Case-Study in a Mediterranean Climate
## 5 Conclusions  
The dwellings in this case-study are overheated, with little or no thermal dissipations due to the lack of night cooling, which makes it difficult to reach adequate comfort conditions for the users. In summer, outdoor daylight temperatures are very high with sharp decreases of between 15 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 20 \({}^{\circ}\)C during the night hours. However, indoor temperatures remain elevated, which shows stable behavior, with thermal fluctuations of between 0.5 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 2.5 \({}^{\circ}\)C during the day and a slight decrease in indoor temperatures at night. South and southeast orientations, with major thermal gains due to heating from direct sunlight, together with inadequate ventilation, which is limited to the user's decision to open the window, provide the reason for this behavior, with a clear impact on the energy balance of the dwelling. During the winter period, outdoor temperatures decrease by between 5 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C, with an irregular daily fluctuation, and hence, major rises and falls of 19 \({}^{\circ}\)C, which counteract the others of 11 \({}^{\circ}\)C or even 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C, can be found on many occasions. The indoor temperature maintains a regular tendency, with thermal oscillations of, in general, between 1.5 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 3 \({}^{\circ}\)C, due to outdoor thermal variations. These indoor temperature values in turn lie below acceptable comfort limit values, since sunlight hours in this season fail to achieve sufficient energy gains to maintain the conditions of well-being for the users. This fact, together with the lack of indoor thermal supplies and the high levels of energy waste that inefficient cooling or heating systems may suppose when fighting thermal loads in winter, as well as in summer constitute the reasons why indoor comfort rarely exists, as well as why \"energy poverty\" situations commonly arise in the Mediterranean housing stock. Monitoring environmental parameters enables the real passive energy behavior to be ascertained of residential stock, whose habitability conditions, mainly in summer and winter periods, remain far from the present comfort standards. This monitoring brings to light the difficulty involved in the control of energy balance and in indoor air renovation due to uncontrolled air infiltrations and the user's performance in opening windows to take advantage of natural ventilation. The energy assessment and analysis of its current state and under its conditions of use constitute a major step to be carried out before the accomplishment of a retrofitting action, in order to improve energy efficiency and comfort conditions, which would allow the social returns obtained to be measured. According to the results, some retrofit solutions are hereby enumerated, which must be first separately analyzed in a further research in order to choose one or another: an increase in thermal isolation in the opaque part (i.e., ETICS; ventilated facade; although in this case, the latter should be rejected because of heritage protection of the outer walls aesthetics), as well as in the openings (i.e., double glazing and window frames with thermal bridge breaking); an increase in the thermal inertia of the building and a controlled mechanical ventilation system (CMV system). The deficiencies in the energy and environmental performance of these multi-family housing buildings should be addressed promoting passive cooling strategies in summer, which is particularly relevant in the Mediterranean area, especially heat dissipation during night hours (night ventilation); moreover, shading devices and solar protections combined with solar-control glazing could also be efficient in southern orientations (south, southeast and southwest). Existing housing stock from the Mediterranean area shows great potential for improvement, as these kinds of interventions may suppose only a minor economic impact, but they will certainly have a significant effect on the energy performance of the building.