Subtask A: Marketing and Communication Strategies

Subtask Lead Country: Norway
Subtask Leaders: Are Rødsjø, The Norwegian State Housing Bank

Objectives:

This Subtask is planned to be a cross-Task activity to:

•  Focus national Task activities on building types and solutions with the greatest multiplication and energy saving potential.
• Develop concrete market strategies together with companies, authorities, research institutes or other market players participating in the Subtask.
• Develop communication plans in accordance with the strategies to maximize the impact of knowledge gained through the Task.

Results:  

1. Priorities and action plans for Subtask A participants to accelerate the growth rate of advanced renovation projects [A1]
2. Two workshops held in conjunction with expert meetings  [A2]
3. A publication presenting and commenting on market strategies developed by the members of the Subtask [A3]

Approach:

1. Collaborate on analyzing national housing statistics, defining possible renovation strategies and concluding which housing types and strategies should have priority for national work within the Task [A1].
2. Identify prototype projects as test cases to explore methodologies to accelerate market penetration.
3. Hold Task workshops to maximize the effectiveness of "marketing" results from the Subtasks and to share success stories on effective market strategies promoting advanced housing renovations [A2].
4. Examples of  strategies Subtask A could work with are:
   1. 1. How to build alliances and network to increase position and market impact.
      2. How to set an agenda (take position, spread knowledge and increase demand) within the building industry, local authorities as well as relevant media.
      3. How to distinguish between pioneer and volume renovation projects

Subtask B: Advanced Projects Analysis

Subtask Lead Country: Switzerland
Lead: Robert Hastings, AEU GmbH, CH

Objectives:

• Systematically analyze and document projects meeting Task selection criteria in order to quantify which measures achieve the greatest energy savings or non energy benifits and at what costs.
• Identify innovative, promising concepts for detailed analysis in Subtask C.
• Provide guidance for national R&D activities by identifying weaknesses and opportunities in high-performance housing renovations.

Results:

• Documentation of the design and performance of exemplary housing renovations in the forms of:
  A tool for systematically collecting planning and monitoring data to facilitate cross comparisons and identifying trends [B1]
• Subtask structured brochures on the SHC public Website and on national, regional or industry association web sites [B2]
• Overview of all projects and lessons learned on SHC Website [B3]
         -      High quality figures and text as a source for:
         -      local language publications and
         -      teaching materials on the SHC password website

Approach:

• Define project selection and evaluation criteria including energy, degree of innovation, economy, ecology and other non energy benefits as well as market potential.
• Adapt the methodology to analyze monitored data developed in Task 28 to the retrofit situation, also including summer comfort [B1]. For each advanced project, together with Subt. C, select key design parameters to be studied, e.g.
  -      site conditions and building orientation
  -      construction (U-values, thermal inertia, air tightness)
  -      windows (types, glazed area)
  -      heating, ventilation and dhw systems (incl. renewables)
  -      provisions for summer comfort
• Interview demonstration project owners, property managers, planners and occupants to characterize the renovation process, quantify costs and benefits, and identify opportunities for improvement (coordinated with Subtask A).
• Analyze monitoring or modeling data and building physics aspects of innovative constructions to quantify demonstration project attributes.
• Quantify the sensitivity of this performance (energy, economy, non nergy benefits, ecology and robustness against changes in user behaviour) to design variations and the appropriateness of the design for other site / climatic conditions (together with Subtask C).
• Report the projects and analytical results per the Task format
• From the analyses and cross comparisons identify trends, concepts or approaches which repeatedly proved effective and document these insights as summary design advice.

Subtask C: Analysis and Concepts

Subtask Lead Country: Germany
Lead: Sebastian Herkel, Fraunhofer Institute, Solar Energy Systems

Objectives:

This Subtask will start with the analysis of advanced projects (in Subtask B) and then develop new concepts also using new components and systems.  Accordingly, the objectives are to:

• Evaluate the performance of advanced housing renovation projects, characterizing performance using methods developed in SHC Task 28.
• Assess the adaptability of new energy supply systems, including renewable energy systems, as part of comprehensive renovation packages.
• Analyze new products and concepts for advanced housing renovations and provide manufacturers feedback to optimize products.
• Develop and publicize optimized renovation concept packages

Results:                

• Design insights from analyses of concepts in Subt B Advanced Projects [C1]
• Solution sets for advanced housing renovation published on the SHC public web site of the Task [C2]
• Design guidelines and concepts [C3]     

Approach:             

• From the collection of advanced renovation projects, select best projects, develop computer models of the projects and calibrate the models with known performance data.
• Define key design issues and set up parameter studies to quantify the sensitivity of performance to variations from as-built solutions. Results will be appended to the Subtask B documentation of advanced built projects.
• Set targets and benchmarks for the performance of new packages of renovation measures incorporating new concepts and innovative components.
• Design new renovation concepts and model their performance using selected, already-built or in-planning projects as the starting point.
• Model the performance of the solutions under different climatic and site conditions to establish the boundary conditions for successful wide-spread applications. Results will address:
  -      energy consumption for heating, water heating, ventilation, cooling, lighting and electricity for technical systems.
  -      environmental impact of key components and systems  regarding "gray energy" and material flows.
• non energy benefits for the consumers/endusers as well as robustness of behaviour changes
• first costs, operational costs and life cycle costs under the
  constraints and opportunities of modernization packages.
• Document all results as guidelines and advanced solutions on the SHC public web site.
• The concepts include both avantgarde (pioneer) solutions as well as volum concepts which are ready for the present market.
• Supply the results to Subtask A for communication to targeted audiences in the renovation profession.

Subtask D:  Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Subtask Lead Country: Belgium
Lead: Sophie Trachte; Architecture et climat, Belgium

Objectives:

• Piece together quantifiable and qualitative results to obtain a comprehensive picture of the effectiveness of housing renovation approaches
• Assess the impact of the approaches taken in a selection of advanced housing renovation projects on:
  -    the environment
  -    the (urban) infrastructure
  -    health, safety and quality of life.

Results: 

• A “basics” on sustainable renovation
• Two Task workshops to discuss results of a TQA type analysis of selected advanced projects & concept packages with experts participation from all Subtasks [D1]
• Proceedings from the above mentioned workshops [D2]
• Input to strategies of subtask A [A3] and the documentation of advanced projects of Subt. B [D3] and of concepts of Subt. C [D4]

Approach:             

An interdisciplinary approach will be taken to assess selected, advanced housing renovation projects. Existing, proven tools will be applied (e.g. Total Quality Assessment (TQA), OPTI, Oeko-Resa and the Synpack methodology). Features of advanced renovation projects and new concepts will be assessed in the following dimensions:

Impact on the Environment

• Environmental footprint

• Production of CO2 and greenhouse gases

• Pollution, waste production, materials flow

Impact on rate of use of resources

• Energy, materials, land, water

• Demolition verses renovation

Impact on the urban infrastructure

• Density and intensity of use of public space and transportation infrastructure

• Meteo-water retention versus removal

Impact on health and quality of life.

• Health (radon, electromagnetic pollution, mold)

• Indoor air quality, thermal comfort, noise levels

• Daylight and winter sunlight access

• Plan flexibility / universal design / adaptability (“long life, loose fit”)

Impact on economics

• Operating expenses (energy, maintenance, services)