Record holder
Last August I took a few photos of the typical 5-story residential building in Alytus. Then this house was still overgoing renovation process. In October or November renovation works were finished:
Then I don't knew that this house will become record holder in the efficiency of the energy consumption in the country. Standard "old construction" commieblocks usually require 175 - 250 kWh/m2 of thermal energy per year in our country. Some very bad houses may use even 300 - 350 kWh/m2 of energy per year. After the renovation the energy consumption is typically reduced to the 75-110 kWh/m2 level.
But this house made even more brave step: the designers proposed and the residents accepted the proposal to renovate the building using the requirements and norms which will be mandatory in EU only since 2020. And the practice showed that those measures weren't very expensive: the total price was bigger by 20% comparing with the renovation using current requirements. But the result was exceptional: the last winter (and we need to say that last winter was cold and temperatures were below average) showed that thermal energy consumption droped down to the 30 kWh/m2 when temperature inside rooms was 20 degrees. This means that total energy bill (except electricity) for the 3 rooms flat could be about 200 EUR per year using natural gas as the primary source and may drop down to the 120-130 EUR when the town will switch to the significantly cheaper biofuell.
Could be further gains achieved ? Of course they could but they will be difficult to achieve on a old construction houses. In this case completely new recuperative ventilation system should be installed. This could be hard solution for many old buildings. But the new buildings will be designed and built using those norms. And this will mean that even in our cold climate the future buildings will require about 12-15 kWh/m2 of energy per year ...
Then I don't knew that this house will become record holder in the efficiency of the energy consumption in the country. Standard "old construction" commieblocks usually require 175 - 250 kWh/m2 of thermal energy per year in our country. Some very bad houses may use even 300 - 350 kWh/m2 of energy per year. After the renovation the energy consumption is typically reduced to the 75-110 kWh/m2 level.
But this house made even more brave step: the designers proposed and the residents accepted the proposal to renovate the building using the requirements and norms which will be mandatory in EU only since 2020. And the practice showed that those measures weren't very expensive: the total price was bigger by 20% comparing with the renovation using current requirements. But the result was exceptional: the last winter (and we need to say that last winter was cold and temperatures were below average) showed that thermal energy consumption droped down to the 30 kWh/m2 when temperature inside rooms was 20 degrees. This means that total energy bill (except electricity) for the 3 rooms flat could be about 200 EUR per year using natural gas as the primary source and may drop down to the 120-130 EUR when the town will switch to the significantly cheaper biofuell.
Could be further gains achieved ? Of course they could but they will be difficult to achieve on a old construction houses. In this case completely new recuperative ventilation system should be installed. This could be hard solution for many old buildings. But the new buildings will be designed and built using those norms. And this will mean that even in our cold climate the future buildings will require about 12-15 kWh/m2 of energy per year ...