Innovative and energy efficient retrofit of public buildings

These public buildings can be used as drivers to heighten awareness and raise soci-ety'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. The site in Denmark is an old industrial area that is being completely reshaped, modernised and made into a new neighbourhood with its own identity including the building Ovnhallen renovated into a modern school and Proevehallen which now has become a public cultural centre. The target for energy saving was reached by implementing an integrated concept for energy savings and renewable energy utilisation. The en-ergy savings were achieved by additional insulation of the thermal envelope of the buildings, low-energy win-dows and demand-controlled mechanical and natural ventilation. Renewable energy was utilised in two sys-tems: An array of photovoltaic cells on the south gable wall and an innovative photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar collector that was cooled by a heat pump and the heat delivered to the heating plant of Proevehallen. Looking into the barriers against choosing innovative energy saving solutions in public administrations we started looking at why and how we choose. The answers and conclusions from interviews led to some more specific questions BRITA wanted to quantify by using a questionnaire. The interviews helped to find current alternative answers, and by asking a larger number of persons, a better statistical analysis could be done. These main questions and answers were translated to the different national languages and placed on the website of the BRITA in PuBs project (www.brita-in-pubs.eu). E-mails were sent out to a larger group of re-spondents, who are connected through city networks or other networks and type of contacts. The dissemination process is a highly valued part of the BRITA in PuBs project. A Communication Guide has been developed as a result of the Socio Economic Analysis and newsletters are also on this behalf being given much attention. For all dissemination activities the homepage www.brita-in-pubs.eu has been seen as the main communication core and publications, deliverables, newsletters etc. can be found on the home-page. As part of the dissemination training of users and maintenance has been paid special attention. The Building information sheets (BISH) are information material for the creating of awareness of different target user groups and lecture preparations.