The Bulgarian Housing Association, which cooperates with CECODHAS and its memebrs through the Power House project, was awarded the National Energy Globe Award 2008 for Bulgaria. The ENERGY GLOBE Award is the most prominent environmental prize worldwide. For this years’ ENERGY GLOBE, 769 projects were submitted from 111 nations. The best project from each nation is honored with a National ENERGY GLOBE Award.
The winner project for Bulgaria focused on energy efficient renovation of condominium buildings.

The high energy consumption and deteriorated status of multistory apartment buildings are common problems in all Eastern European big cities.  In Bulgaria the situation is even more complicated by the extremely high share of homeownership and the lack of practice and legislation concerning the management and maintenance of condominium buildings. A pilot renovation project was implemented by the Bulgarian Housing Association in order to propose solution for sustainable renovation and subsequent maintenance of these buildings. The project efforts were directed in tackling three main issues preventing implementation of renovation activities – the lack of know how about energy efficiency in housing, the lack of organization of homeowners and the lack of affordable financial tools.

During the project an entire thermal insulation of the building envelope of the pilot building was made and a subsequent building maintenance was established. The project sustainability and payback of investment was based on the benefits from savings of energy used for heating of the pilot building. After the energy efficient renovation the energy needs for heating decreased with 50%. The renovated building received a first class A energy certificate according to EPBD rules as a proof of excellent project results.

The Condominium renovation project of the Bulgarian Housing Association is an outstanding example for the capacity of the energy efficiency as a powerful resource to cover the urgent needs for financing and sustainable maintenance of deteriorated multistory condominium buildings.

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>For informaiton on the award, please visit http://www.energyglobe.com/