Innovative retrofit to improve energy efficiency in public buildings

Panel: Panel 4. Residential and commercial sectors: delivering lower energy use in buildings

Authors:
Kirsten Engelund Thomsen, Danish Building Research Institute, Aalborg University, Denmark
Ove Mørck, Cenergia Energy Consultants, Denmark
Karin Buvik, SINTEF Building and Infrastructure, Architecture and Building Technology, Denmark
Jan Rolland, Asker Municipality, Norway

Abstract

The BRITA in PuBs project within the EU Eco-Buildings programme started in 2004 and finished in spring 2008. The project aimed to increase the market penetration of innovative and effective retrofit solutions to improve energy efficiency and to implement renewable energy technologies.

A group of demonstration public buildings in the participating European regions (North, Central, South and East) were retrofitted. These public buildings can be used as drivers to heighten awareness and raise society's level of awareness of energy conservation. Secondly, the research work packages of the project include socio-economic research such as the identification of financing strategies, assessment of design guidelines and development of an internet-based knowledge tool for retrofit measures and case studies.

In this paper two demonstration projects are reported. The energy savings, the CO ₂ savings and the economy of the Danish demonstration project, an old factory constructed in the 1930s and converted to a cultural centre, are described. Furthermore the constructions, the installations, the solar photovoltaic and solar thermal and the building management systems are reported.

The Norwegian demonstration project concerns the Borgen Community Centre located in a suburban area in Asker close to Oslo, the capital of Norway. The Borgen School was built in 1970 and retrofitted and converted in 2005 to Borgen Community Centre, a place for the whole neighbourhood. The main building, which is part of the BRITA project, contains a secondary school and facilities for health-care services and leisure-time arrangements. The energy-saving measures and the energy consumption are described.

The demonstration projects proved that introduction of the right concepts for energy saving measures and renewable energy integration into a renovation project can bring the resulting building up to an energy standard that is considerably higher than that required by the current national building regulations at a reasonable cost and payback time.