“Reports and publications”
Energy Efficiency in Domestic Electrical Energy Use
As part of the SINFONIA project 40 Households from the demonstration projects participated in the electricity monitoring and electricity consulting in Innsbruck. Among them was a higher than average share of retired people and only few families. Within this sample the refrigeration and entertainment sectors are the dominant fields of electrical energy use. If new and highly energy efficient appliances were used throughout a considerable improvement could be expected, e.g. with modern A+++ Fridge/Freezers using only half of the observed value for the category. Entertainment equipment must, however, not be neglected. The recent development to ever larger screens and the growing diversity of decoders, set-top boxes and receivers adds to this. Particularly stand-by consumption can be large. The latter is also true for telephone/DSL routers as these are operated 24/7. These should be included in the ecodesign labelling scheme in the near future.
The results of the presented monitoring back the assumption that around 75 % of the reduction potential is due to the refrigeration and entertainment sectors. Hence deep retrofit activities like within the SINFONIA project should always include programmes to incentivise the replacement of old, inefficient household appliances. As many apartments have fitted kitchens it is a recommendation to incentivise landlords/housing companies to supply energy efficient refrigeration appliances as part of the retrofit. Their long-term perspective as owners of the building eliminates the hesitation older tenants may have towards investing in better appliances with only long-term rewards as well as the shortage in capital that prevents low-income households to invest despite the fact that the total cost of ownership would be reduced appreciably. In low-income housing such would also reduce utility bill poverty and resulting rent arrears.
Download the full version in PDF below!
Building Monitoring - Basics and Guidelines
In the framework of the Sinfonia Smart City Initiative, the impact of the renovation projects in urban neighborhoods of Bolzano and Innsbruck will be determined with dedicated monitoring measures. In that sense, partners from the Passive House Institute have developed a set of guidelines for building monitoring defining consistent measurement and performance evaluation processes.
Tailored concepts for energy efficient refurbishing of buildings and smart districts
As part of the Sinfonia Smart City Initiative, detailed information on major topics related to highly energy efficient refurbishment have been collected in this report in order to help other cities and district taking the right decisions in the implementation of their own refurbishment projects. These guidelines focus on building thermal envelope, building services engineering, household electricity systems and standardisation of energy efficient processes. A detailed description of specific refurbishment solutions such as prefabricated timber framed façades, smart integration of ventilation systems, and energy efficiency in electricity systems are also covered by this report.
In addition to these guidelines, three tools, developed by the Passive House Institute and CasaClima, partners of the Sinfonia project, are also provided in the Annexes of the report:
The Thermal Bridge catalogue (Annex A)
The Condensation Tool (Annex B)
The CasaClima refurbishment guidelines (Annex C)
Report on energy balance district tool
As part of the Sinfonia Work Package 4, the Passive House Institute developed a tool to assess and optimise city districts in terms of energy efficiency. The tool, called districtPH, enables the user to investigate, with reference to arbitrary performance indicators, the long-term consequences of planning decisions. This may include for instance an increase in the refurbishment rate, changes in the quality of refurbishments, construction or extension of district heating grids and creation of renewable energy. This reports presents the methodology used to build the tool, which description can be accessed at this link.
International Policy Maker Workshop: Deep Retrofit Financing and Quality Assurance
On 8 March 2018, experts from the Passive House Institute working on the Sinfonia project organised a dedicated workshop for policy makers to share experiences on energy efficient renovation projects. For more information, you can download the full report below.
Planning City Refurbishment: an Exploratory Study at District Scale
Planning City Refurbishment: an exploratory study at district scale, 2017
2017 International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation, Y. Nzengue; A. du Boishamon; K. Laffont-Eloire; V. Partenay; Y. Abdelouadoud; P. Zambelli; V. D’Alonzo; R. Vaccaro
Good practice district stimulator
This report aims to contribute to the debate on the development of site-specific solutions for the transition of cities to the Smart Energy City (SEC) concept. Each city is a unique combination of economic, social, environmental, and institutional conditions, which results in various needs, priorities, and capacities for SEC development. Starting from the description of the complex process behind the transition to SEC and its stakeholders, the report focuses in particular on the construction of a baseline of local knowledge that can support the definition of site-specific innovative solutions, stimulating the adoption of best practices through the refinement of local Master Plans.
D4.1 - Guidelines for nearly zero energy neighbourhoods
Deliverable D4.1 - Guidelines for nearly zero energy neighbourhoods.
Smart City Projects Implementation in Europe - Assessment of Barriers and Drivers
In the framework of a feasibility study, experts from EURAC analysed the experiences of over a hundred completed and ongoing Smart City projects.
The study aims to provide advice and support on the implementation of smart city projects at European Union level. A quantitative feasibility study - strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis - based on more than one hundred previous experiences of smart city projects in Europe, indicates a certain difficulty in carrying out the investigated efforts. Results show that the main obstacle is the environment external to the analysed activities (opportunities and threats), while issues internal (strengths and weaknesses) to the investigated projects appear to facilitate their execution.
The following were identified as main barriers (weaknesses and threats): i.) subsidies, ii.) communication between project participants and the public, and iii.) expertise in designing new technologies and solutions. In contrast, the most effective drivers (strengths and opportunities) are i.) public participation, ii.) cooperation between different stakeholders, and iii.) political commitment over the long term. Public participation is not only the most powerful driver, but also the most utilized factor to overcome the detected barriers.
Please use the link below to download the full study.
D2.1 - SWOT analysis report of the refined concept/baseline
Deliverable 2.1 on SWOT analysis report on the refined concept/baseline.
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