Heating system compliance, case study: San Pier Martire Conservatory in Florence

San Pier Martire Conservatory, brief history

The complex is annexed to the church of San Felice. It was originally founded, together with the church, by the Benedictine monks and then moved on to Camaldolese monksand in 1550 by order of Cosimo de’ Medici the convent of the Dominican nuns (originally resident in via dei Serragli) was transferred there.

In 1787, the Grand Duke Peter Leopold authoritatively transforms the convent into a Conservatory for the education and instruction of poor girls. The Sisters are allowed to participate in the formation and instruction of the girls.

In the 1810 Napoleon establishes the suppression of all ecclesiastical corporations, congregations, communities and associations of any nature and denomination. The Sisters of San Pier Martire, forced to “strip” themselves of their religious habits, continue with the assignment in a civilian capacity. In 1894 the nursery school was established. At the end of the century, all the Conservatory’s activities were formally legalized by a specific statute and related regulations.

Since the early 1900s, the Dominican Sisters They manage the nursery school and the primary school occupying the premises of the San Pier Martire Conservatory, which in 1996 was classified, by regional decree, private entity. In the 2000/2001 school year the Ministry of Education recognized the San Pier Martire Primary School and Nursery School as Private School. In the 2020 school year, the management of the school part passed to the Don Renato Fissi Foundation.

The task of reducing consumption

I (Architect Enea Pacini, of Casa Senza Gas Toscana, ed.) I was summoned in 2013 by the then Prioress of the Dominican Sisters, Sister Agnese Carpitelli, who asked me the following question: “We, as a Conservatory, consume approximately 20,000-25,000 cubic meters of methane gas per year, How can we reduce consumption? As a ‘thermal engineering’ expert, you study what interventions can be implemented at the lowest cost and give greater results in terms of reducing consumption”.

Having received the first preliminary assignment to study the building complex, I proceeded to carry out the first surveys of both the envelope and the heating system. From the surveys carried out, which continued for several months, a disastrous energy situation. On the envelope side, in addition to the historical part – which was expected to be “energy-intensive” – there were also some expansions carried out in the 80s serving the nursery, which did not have any thermal requirements: single-headed masonry facing outwards, single-glazed windows and iron frames. On the plant side there were, in addition to low yields and inefficiencieseven of the irregularity both formal and in terms of security. For example:

• After the original expansion pipe was damaged, the expansion vessel had been connected to the generator with a pipe of unsuitable section and with a “flying” pipe, not protected from the cold (the system was without ISPESL-INAIL certification);
• There heat distribution built in the 1960s at the same time as the entire heating system, although it served a variety of functions that required different switch-on and switch-off times, it was conceived as a single zone.

Description of intervention and chronology

Except for a small intervention to ensure the functioning of the thermostatic valves at the end of 2013, and a partial compliance of the expansion system carried out in 2014, the works, due to lack of funds, were interrupted for a few years. At the beginning of 2020 I was called back, to carry out the main intervention: divide the heat distribution into four thermal zones.

Since the plant is always active during the winter season, and it is not possible to work during the school day, its construction was planned to take place during the summer period, during the suspension of lessons. The intervention was divided into three lots:

• 1. Renovation of the primary distribution of the convent part;
• 2. Constitution of the bypass to divide the nuns area from the elementary school area;
• 3. Renovation of the thermal power plant with division into zones, by means of a collector and separate electric pumps.

To reduce the construction site installation and decommissioning costs, it was finally decided to merge the first two lots, which were built in the summer of 2021, while the thermal power plant lot was built in the summer of 2022.

In the last two years, survey and project activities have resumed for the compliance with the heat accounting side (Dlg 102/2014, UNI 10200 and subsequent amendments) and the electrical system. An intervention is currently being carried out electrical system renovationwhich I will talk about in a later article.