Five ’display’ful years - A Campaign Review is now available on the Display website : click here. This report will be interesting for new and old Display users - providing an overview of the history of the Campaign and the current services that are on offer to members.

In the city of Nyíregyháza in the north-east of Hungary, almost one-third of the housing stock was built using concrete panels in the 1960s and 1970. The energy consumption within these buildings is extremely high : they suffer from very poor insulation, with numerous thermal bridges, poor air-tightness and severe water infiltration. In order to improve the comfort of the population and decrease the amount they spend on energy, the city decided to modernise its district heating system and housing stock.

The first stage involved a programme called ‘Opening’, which was launched in 1997 to upgrade the circuitry of the district heating system, reducing efficiency losses for more than 12,800 flats. This resulted in a considerable decrease in energy consumption and was the most cost-effective measure possible. The second stage known as the ‘Panel programme’ started in 2001 and involved modernising the heating system and installing insulation.

Most of the flats involved in the Panel programme were privately owned, which presented a challenge in securing agreement to retrofit. To overcome this obstacle, the costs were subsidised. The State financed one-third of the programme costs, one-third was provided by the city council with the final third provided by the owners themselves. In order to choose buildings to take part in the Panel programme, collectives of flat owners were invited to submit an application (the programme was not open to individual flat owners).

The Opening project was funded by householders, who made a one-off payment (€10/radiator), the government and Nyírtávhő Ltd, the district heating company owned by the local government (Nyírtávhő Ltd purchases hot water from the power station and distributes it to consumers). The payback time for the reconstruction of the heating system through the Opening project is 2-4 years.

For more information see the shining example section http://www.display-campaign.org/rubrique682.html or click here

Switzerland

On the 23rd of April the 4th Swiss users club took place in Yverdon-les-Bains. Over 20 representatives from French speaking Swiss communes met to share their experiences. They were treated to a presentation by a communication expert who provided his insight into how to prepare a successful communication campaign and also how to communicate with the media. Pascal Mullener from Montreux, winner of the second prize at the 2007 Towards Class A awards, also shared his experience of managing the local communication campaign in his municipality.

France

The next users club will take place on the 27th of May in Paris. The agenda for this meeting will be sent to all the French users in early May after a preparatory meeting with the DGUHC. Time will be allocated for cities to talk about their first experiences of carrying out the DPE (French National Energy Certificate) and the Display adapted version of the DPE.

For more information concerning this meeting please contact Peter Schilken.

After the launch of this survey at the end of last year (December 2007), we received 87 responses. We are pleased to say that 60 respondents completed the whole questionnaire. 37 respondents have already started their communication campaign. With curiosity and a high interest we particularly read the 35 answers that were given in the section dedicated to communication.

Below is a snippet of the findings :

How many posters are displayed, according to their size ?

When analysing the data for all the respondents, the majority of posters were under the common A4 format. However, for the 35 respondents who started their communication campaign and completed the questionnaire, there were more A3 than A4 posters, some A2, A1 and even bigger sizes of posters in ‘other’, showing that when the campaign has started, the size of display is much bigger.

This is highlighted in the graph below.

If you would like to read the entire report – please click here.

Thank you to all the participants and keep up with the good work !