What is innovative about this project?

  • Project Planning & Management: Teaming up with local authorities for the uptake of new technologies.
  • Social: Ensuring co-creation in the process of renovating social and affordable homes

Two homeowners’ associations started a far-reaching district renovation of their stock with the collaboration of the municipality and funded by state grants. In the absence of established cooperation streams between homeowners’ association and the local government the project placed a strong emphasis on improving inter-institutional dialogue and trust. This was done by a bottom-up approach dedicated to ensure collaboration was achieved.

Local Partnership

  • Company: not available
  • Municipality: Municipality of Pernik
  • Housing provider: owner-occupied
  • Other: Ministry for Regional Development and Public Works, Homeowners’ Associations Ladovitsa (HOA)-56 and Ladovitsa-58 supported by CAC Centre for Social Housing

The Municipality of Pernik was the responsible for the planning, which included involving the residents of block 56 and block 58, both in the project preparation and implementation.
The homeowners’ associations were engaged both in the development of the energy renovation plan and in the financing of the new horizontal heating system installation. The latter was included on HOA’s initiative but not subsidised by the National Programme for Energy Efficiency in Multi-family Residential Buildings. The Municipality of Pernik and the Ministry for Regional Development and Public Works supervised the project, making sure it complied with the framework of the National Programme for Energy Efficiency of Multi-Family Residential Buildings.

Key Facts

  • Year of construction: block 58 was constructed in 1993, block 56 in 1996
  • Renovation period: the renovation lasted 6 months and took place in 2017
  • Area of intervention (m²): two 15-storey apartment buildings – 15,400 m2
  • Number of dwellings (before/after): 140/140
  • Housing typology: multi-apartment buildings
  • Housing tenure:  multi-ownership
  • Number of residents: 300
  • Shared facilities: renovated area with benches outside the buildings

Financial information

  • Funding sources: subsidy from the state budget and self-participation of the HOA Ladovitsa-58 for the new horizontal heating system
  • Total cost of renovation (€): for block 58, 619.330 € of which a self-participation of approximately 23.000€. For block 56, 588.000
  • Subsidies received (€): 1.207.330 €.
  • Rent before and after renovation (€/month): Owner-occupied, no rent
  • Energy bill (€/month):After renovation 76€/month on average

Context

Pernik, with a population of 70,285, is the most populated city in western Bulgaria after Sofia. It is an industrial city – a major manufacturing centre, brown coals, building materials and textiles being the most important. The Ladovitsa neighbourhood is part of Iztok district of Pernik and is distant from the city centre, near an industrial zone and the inner-city highway. Ladovitsa neighbourhood consists of multi-family residential buildings mainly constructed by large-panel and large surface shuttering industrial methods. The main reasons for renovating consisted of deteriorated physical conditions and insulation in the buildings which were having an impact on the quality of life and their energy costs of the residents.

Goals

  •  Decrease of the energy consumption and the heating bills of at least 40%;
  • Improved quality of the living environment for the residents;
  • Improved common areas adjacent to the building.

Interventions

  • Thermal insulation of the building envelope roof waterproofing and replacement of window frames.
  • Repair of the lighting system in the common parts.
  • Implementation of a new lightning protection system.
  • Strengthening of rooftops.
  • Installation of the new horizontal heating system, (which consists of replacing the pipes of the vertical system into pipes for the horizontal system and the heating units inside the apartments), automatically balanced and energy-optimised, with an individual measurement of the monthly heat consumption for each apartment.
  • Capacity building for the active involvement of HOAs in the renovation processes of the residential building and the subsequent management and maintenance of the property.
  • Cooperation between the different stakeholders (public, private and non-governmental entities) involved in the energy renovation process.

Impact

  • The multi-family residential buildings were upgraded from energy class E to B (Ladovitsa-58) and C (Ladovitsa-56).
  • Added quality of the living environment.
  • Drastic reduction in energy costs. In the case of Ladovitsa-58, energy consumption decreased of 745,000 kWh/year. In addition, in the same building, 233 t of CO2 are now saved each year compared to before renovation.
  • Stronger cohesion among the inhabitants.
  • Improvements in the operational governance of the housing associations.
  • Improved inter-institutional cooperation.

Advice to future “Lighthouse Districts”

  • In the Bulgarian context, there is a clear need for a large-scale information campaign and exchange of good practices related to the involvement of the homeowners and their associations in the overall process for the energy renovation of their homes.
  • There is a need for residents to participate with their own funds in the energy renovation of their homes. The use of the one-stop-shop approach would have made the efforts to advise and support the homeowners’ association in the decision-making process more effective.
  • The main obstacle was the absence of established practices and examples of cooperation between homeowners’ association and the local government in the planning, carrying out, and overseeing of energy improvement projects in multifamily residential buildings.
  • The engagement of people using a bottom-up strategy and strong collaboration at all levels between all parties involved were factors that helped in overcoming the aforementioned challenges.

Sources

http://www.cac-bg.org/index.php?p=25160

https://bit.ly/42XAek2

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