Background

After the local election in 2003 the newly elected municipal administration of the town of Krivodol, with the support of the Municipal Council, adopted a policy for energy saving and environmental protection for the benefit of the local community. The Mayor supported by his deputies and the Council were aware of the serious tasks they were undertaking. This is the reason why they decided to rely on professionals to solve their problems with energy bills and indoor comfort of municipal sites and made a decision to organise a bid for energy efficiency projects.

This shining example showcases the renovation of a kindergarten and nursery building. The building is a solid-frame brick structure. Prior to the implementation of the energy efficiency measures the joinery was wooden. The existing heating installation comprised a local naphtha-fueled boiler house. The low efficiency of the heating system used to lead to high electricity consumption and high operating costs.

Building details
Type of building:	Kindergarten and nursery
Year of construction	The building was constructed in 1974 with a floor area of 877 m2. The kindergarten is open for 60 hours from Monday to Friday, from 7:30 a.m. till 7:30 p.m.
Heating and cooling installed	_ The building is heated by a wood-fired pyrolyse boiler.
Energy label/CO2 emissions	This project successfully reduced energy use and associated CO2 emissions. This can be seen by the improvement in the Display® rating for CO2, but not for energy consumption, because the reduction in energy use was not enough to move up a class: _ 2004: - Energy use: B  CO2 emissions: C  Water use: D _ 2005: - Energy use: B  CO2 emissions: A  Water use: D _ At the end of the first reporting period (September 2005), after the implementation of the recommended measures, electricity consumption was reduced to 77 kWh/m2/year and the building got class B according to Display® Classification while the CO2 emissions reached Class A. The water consumption was still Class D or 424 L/m2/year which showed that the municipality had to focus its attention on reducing water consumption, which it intends to do.

Project Description
Aim	In 2004 the Municipal Council after a bid decided to appoint the Bulgarian engineering company Enemona SA, experienced in the implementation of energy efficiency projects, to audit several municipal buildings and to implement the selected (by the municipality) measures proposed after the audits, on the basis of an ESCo contract. The aim was to improve the conditions in several buildings, saving both energy and money and protecting the environment. One of the buildings selected for improvement was the Slaveyche Child Care Establishment. _ The Slaveyche Child Care Establishment (nursery and kindergarten) is located in the town of Krivodol. It is a solid-frame brick building of 877 m2 floor area, built in 1974. The building consists of premises related to the main designation of the site and a basement where a laundry, a kitchenette, a boiler house and a utility room are located. Part of the basement was not heated and there was no ventilation system. Most of the windows had wooden frames with double glazing. The roof of the building is sloped with an unheated and non-functional attic with small ventilation openings. The floor of the building is made of steel-concrete without insulation. The poor state of the building envelope and the in-house heating system were the main reasons for the low energy performance of the building and the low comfort level of building users. _ In order to maintain an acceptable indoor temperature in the Slaveyche Child Care Establishment building, the required energy consumption totalled 232 MWh. The quantity of heat energy produced by combustion of industrial gas oil was estimated at 202.8 MWh/year, with an additional 15 MWh/year needed for domestic hot water heating, i.e. the total normalised consumption of industrial gas oil amounted to 18.83 t/year. The annual consumption of electricity was 16 MWh/year, including 5.2 MWh for water preheating in summer and another 1.7 MWh for outdoor lighting. The energy performance of the building with respect to space heating was 159.6 КWh/m2year, which exceeded by far the requirements for obtaining the national energy efficiency certificate.
Key points	After the detailed audit performed by the Enemona AS company, several key energy saving measures were identified, of which the following were implemented: - Replacement of the entire joinery of the site with new PVC and AL joinery with interrupted thermal bridges and double glass packages with one low-emission K-glass.  Replacement of the existing industrial gas oil-fired boiler with two new pyrolise boilers using wooden briquettes. Automation of heat supply in the building.  Additional 5 cm thick insulation was applied on the internal side of the building envelope walls.  Additional heat insulation of the roof.  Improvement of the space heating system and installation of thermostatic valves on the radiators.  Replacement of incandescent bulbs with compact florescent lamps. _ The renovated building was opened at an official ceremony with the participation of the children, the parents, the Mayor, members of the municipal administration and representatives of the local media. The measures that have been implemented were announced and the targets that the municipality was pursuing explained. The Mayor reported that this project is a good example of the effectiveness of energy conservation measures because it aims to achieve significant results with respect to saving energy resources. _ Monitoring of the building’s energy consumption after implementation of the energy efficiency measures showed that consumption has been reduced by about 50% - from the initial consumption of 232.12 MWh/year (183 kWh/m2) prior to implementation of the energy saving measures, to 117.93 MWh/year (93 kWh/m2) afterwards.
Reason for inclusion as Shining Example	This project demonstrates how the administration of a small municipality with 11,027 inhabitants had the courage to undertake serious step towards saving energy and improving the comfort for building users in municipal sites. The project was funded through an ESCo contract, thus achieving significant benefits for the local community. The same financial scheme was used by the municipality to extend the established public-private partnership to other municipal sites thus providing a good example to other municipalities.