Change Search Parameters

Select Searchorder

Select Country

Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czech Republic Germany Denmark Estonia Spain Finland France United Kingdom Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Malta Netherlands Lithuania Luxemburg Lativia Poland Portugal Romania Sweden Slovenia Slovakia
AT
BE
BG
CY
CZ
DE
DK
EE
ES
FI
FR
GB
GR
HU
IE
IT
MT
NL
LT
LU
LV
PL
PT
RO
SE
SI
SK

Select Hot Topics

Financing and Management

Funding Incentives Project Management Asset Management

Knowledge and Support

Partnership Working Work with Residents Capacity Building

Architecture

Thermal Insulation Windows and Shading Air Tightness Environmental Design

Renewable Energies

Solar Thermal Solar Photovoltaic Other Renewables

Building Services

Heating and Hot Water Cooling Ventilation Electricity Saving Products Water Saving

Monitoring and Certification

Certification Monitoring

Select Type of Project

Construction Refurbishment Other

Case Study: Fasadrenovering av Orrholmen (Orrholmen Façade Renovation)

Name of organisation: KBAB - Karlstads Bostads AB

Stage of development: completed

Year of finalization: 2009

Type of project: refurbishment

Area: suburban

Scale: group of buildings

Type of building: Apartment in a block of six to ten stories

Number of units/dwellings: 630

Tenure: social rental

Street: Babordsgatan

Postcode:

City: Karlstad

Region/ County:

Country: Sweden

Last Update: 06.04.2010

Funding Certification Thermal Insulation Air Tightness Electricity Saving Products

Short Description

The project "Orrholmen Façade Renovation" had the objective of removing comfort problems such as uneven temperatures, draughts from windows and balcony partitions in the apartments, at the same time as reducing energy loss in the area. This objective was achieved by the removal of unnecessary electrical equipment and including seven large fan units which supplied the garage with preheated exterior air. The façades were decontaminated of PCB and existing joints removed. The space in the joint was then filled with foam right into the space between the edge of the floor structure and the precast concrete unit. This also provided, besides sealing against wind loads, improved soundproofing and air-tightness between the apartments. The existing precast concrete units were also provided with supplementary insulation of 70 mm expanded plastics board. The balcony partitions were additionally insulated and the balcony doors were prepared to increase accessibility. New windows were also installed.

Key Elements

Certification

An Energy Declaration was conducted during the autumn of 2009.

Funding

A small charge supplement has been added to the rent, but according to KBAB’s estimates, the energy measures are profitable. Considering energy price increases and annual reduction of energy and power costs this means that there is a repayment period for the measures of about 12 years.

Thermal Insulation

In order to preserve the character of the buildings, precast concrete units on balconies have not been removed, although they do comprise a thermal bridge. The balconies’ curtain walls have been supplied with new glass partitions and doors with good U values. Supplementary insulation has also been fitted to the partitions and an outer sheet of plastics laminate added. A supplementary insulation of 25 cm loose insulation fibre has been fitted to the roof. Supplementary insulation has been fitted to the precast concrete units of the façades with 70 mm foamed plastic and rendering.

Air Tightness

The soft joints, which contained PCB, were exchanged on half of the buildings about 20 years ago. Notwithstanding this, the concrete around the joint is still contaminated. The joint and the concrete closest to the joint were therefore removed and the waste carefully collected for disposal.
The space in the joint was then filled with foam right into the space between the edge of the floor structure and the precast concrete unit. This also provided, besides a seal against wind loads, improved soundproofing and air-tightness between the apartments. The façade insulation and the mounting of the new windows are otherwise the most important items affecting air-tightness.

Electricity Saving Products

Unnecessary electrical equipment was removed when renovating in order to reduce energy use.

Main Results

The most important indicator that the project has succeeded is that the use of energy has reduced from 225 kWh/m2 per year to 150 kWh/m2 per year after the unnecessary electrical equipment was removed. This figure reduced further, after the façade renovation was conducted, to 90 kWh/m2 per year excluding, property electricity. Another positive aspect with the project is that the air-tightness has improved.

Lessons learned

A strong aspect of the project is the use of partnering contracts as a form of working, which resulted in the same contracting company and craftsmen being able to renovate all ten buildings with a focus on quality and good craftsmanship. New mistakes were therefore not made for every building, as the feedback of experience was utilised. This method of working could also be refined, even if renovation of the first building was very successful. Another strong point with the project is that the entire shell around the building was renovated. With this, no part of the shell was missed.

KBAB does not see any direct weaknesses with the project; possibly further things, for instance solar panels or trimming of control systems, could have been included in the project. However, this would have resulted in it not being possible to complete the project in the time that it was. It is easy to do these things in the next step.

Additional Information

In the current situation there are no firm plans for future work with Orrholmen, but measures that may be considered for implementation include: more energy efficient exhaust air fans, solar panels and individual measurement of cold and hot water/energy efficient mixers.

Orrholmen is the most cost effective project that KBAB has implemented, which results from the partner procurement conducted.

Study visits by other property owners and housing companies have been made in the area, but KBAB cannot express its views on the extent to which similar ideas have been used with other projects.