Improved energy efficiency to combat energy poverty in a housing complex with vulnerable tenants

Five housing blocks consisting of 167 flats built prior 1977 had an energy performance classification F (214 kWh/m2 per year) prior the project. Heating became costly for the tenants who started requesting social aid from the City Hall to heat their homes during the winter. This resulted in a decision to renovate these buildings to combat energy poverty, improve energy efficiency and enhance the living standards of residents. The specific objectives of this project were thus to reduce expenditures for residential heating, thereby helping to reduce poverty and improving the spending power of deprived groups; reduce conventional fuel consumption; limit greenhouse gas emissions; and improve the outward appearance of the housing blocks.

These goals were achieved by consulting with tenants about the need for retrofitting due to the degraded standard of the buildings. The tenants agreed to pay 20% of the costs (through a monthly contribution to the homeowner’s association), while the local government contributed 20% and the remaining share was funded under the “Regional Operational Programme, Key Area of Intervention - 1.2”. The retrofit entailed energy efficiency measures such as reconstruction of exterior walls and building roofs with ETICS system of thermal insulation, the replacement of wooden windows and doors frames with new PVC frames, and new double- and triple-paned windows, which improved the energy performance to a C-class energy classification (74 kWh/m2 per year).