Case Study: BHA pilot Aleko Konstantinov Street, 2 - SHELTER Project

Short Description

The project includes energy efficient renovation of building envelope and common parts as well as installation of RES (solar collectors).

Key Elements

Certification

Building inspection and energy audit executed for the condominium building.

Asset Management

Stock condition surveys, including building energy audit/diagnosis, preparing refurbishment plans, selecting cost-effective and energy efficient refurbishment options executed for the condominium building.

Capacity Building

Training of district municipality experts, HOAs, professionals as main actors involved.

Work with Residents

Raising awareness of energy efficient renovation of condominiums through information campaign at district level including dissemination of information materials and training programmes for residents. 

Advice on existing alternative options for the energy efficient refurbishment of the building were given to residents during the preparatory stage of the renovation process.

Funding

A combination of subsidy from the National Housing Renovation Programme and EU subsidy for renewable energy sources (solar collectors).

Thermal Insulation

The technical design of the energy efficient renovation of the condominium building includes the thermal insulation of building envelop as follows:

- insulation of external walls with 8 cm EPS with U value=0.335W/m2K;
- insulation of pitched roof with 15 cm mineral wool with U value=0.23W/m2K;
- insulation of the first floor with 8 cm hard mineral wool plates with U value=0.38W/m2K.

Windows and Shading

The technical design of the energy efficient renovation of the condominium building includes replacement of existing wooden double framed window frames with PVC window frame with double glazed low emission glass with U value=1.70W/m2K.

Heating and Hot Water

District heating supply system.

Solar Thermal

The technical design of the energy efficient renovation of the condominium building includes installation of solar collectors supplied with water boilers, heat exchanger, expanding vessel, circulation pumps and hydro-module for automatic management of temperature sensors. The technical design of solar thermal installation is coordinated with the utility provider for heating and hot water at district level.

Main Results

Large scale energy efficient renovation of existing condominium buildings in Bulgaria has been a complicated issue due to the tenure structure and long term lack of proper building management legislation. Therefore very few pilot projects were developed and the renovation activities in Bulgaria are lagging behind that in most EE countries. Thus a special attention must be drawn to investigate and optimize the operations chain related to housing refurbishment. Certain time perspective is needed however, in order to draw the specific conclusions from SHELTER project implementation especially regarding the energy savings and emissions as far as one year exploitation period is needed to measure the real energy consumption and to compare with the designed one.

The impact of the successful implementation of the alternative SHELTER project management model can be summarized within its vital contributions on the following aspects of the energy efficient building renovation process:

• The implementation of SHELTER alternative let to an increased energy efficient performance of the renovated buildings versus the previous pilot projects. The expected savings according to the preliminary energy audits account approximately 10% more compared to previous projects. This is mainly due to the extended energy efficiency program including the application of RES (solar collectors for domestic hot water) on the roof of the renovated buildings.
• A higher cost effectiveness of the renovation is achieved in terms of better energy savings for the same cost for renovation which means better value for the investment. This is mainly due to the improved bidding procedure for the different type of construction works.
• A better quality of the construction works is performed mainly due to the improved coordination between the different contractors.
  A shorter construction period is achieved through the improved model for collaboration between the different stakeholders involved in the process.

Lessons learned

The elaborated and successfully tested project management model for subsidy based renovation of multi-story apartment buildings within SHELTER project is to be used in the newly launched National Housing Renovation Program of the Ministry for Regional Development and Public Works.

The lessons learnt from the implementation of SHELTER alternatives within the energetic renovation of the three pilot multi-story condominium buildings can be summarized as follows:

• The coordination of all project related activities is time and resource consuming due to the large number of stakeholders involved, diverse sources of available financing and the unique and complex nature of the activity.
• The possible multiplication and upscaling of the tested project management model will reduce the time and resources needed and thus, will increase the effectiveness in technical and financial terms.
• The upscaling of the energetic renovation activities will not only increase the financial efficiency but will enable residents’ involvement and satisfaction from the improvement of their homes and living environment.

The barriers encountered during the implementation of SHELTER alternatives can be summarized as follows:

Concerning the current legislation

The most difficult barrier to deal with during the implementation of SHELTER alternatives is the heavy, complicated and often ambiguous procedure for public procurement involving national subsidies and targeted EU funds. In the same time, the newly adopted Condominium Act needs further improvements especially in its part dedicated to incentivize the overall activity and the financial input on behalf of the homeowners’ associations in condominium buildings to be renovated.

Concerning the financing of the energetic housing renovation in Bulgaria

Considerable barrier is the lack of available and sufficiently flexible models for financial engineering that are needed to create tailor made mixture of different sources of funds including subsidies to cover the renovation costs.

Concerning the training of professionals

There is still missing capacity of professionals with knowledge and experience in financial engineering and contracting of construction works financed by public funds including subsidies.

Possible improvements and future upscaling of SHELTER alternative

In order to apply and upscale the alternatives proposed under SHELTER project to a larger scale of the energetic renovation of existing condominium buildings in Bulgaria the government has to undertake the following major steps:

• To establish the legal frame for the selection of national and regional Project Managers (project management units) that can guide, coordinate and channel the larger scale of renovation projects of condominium buildings in the respective regions of the country.
  To elaborate a series of tools in order to guide and enable the upscaled housing renovation projects to a more integrated design approach assuring the quality of the works and influencing the energy efficient homeowners’ behaviour.
• These tools incorporate recommendations to promote the interaction between designers and constructors, a tool-kit for model work specifications and contracts with construction professionals, a list of recommended professionals/companies, average energy performance and technical layouts of typical condominium buildings and campaigns to influence the energy efficient homeowners behaviour.

Additional Information

Contact:

Eleonora Gaydarova
BHA - The Bulgarian Housing Association
E-mail: bha@bha-bg.org
Phone: + 359 2 98 31 200