Verona – Veneto Region – Italy
PORTA PALIO SOCIAL HOUSINGLong term planning for replacing boilers with community heating and renewablesBackground
Porta Palio is composed of ten buildings around two squares. Each building is composed of 18 or 24 apartments, a total of 228 flats.
The existing heating system used a boiler in each flat which was maintained by the occupant. These were generally poorly maintained and getting old – over half were due to be replaced. In addition, the chimneys did not guarantee adequate ventilation. As a result the heating was inefficient and potentially unsafe.
Building details |
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| Type of building : |
Social housing blocks |
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| Year of construction/ Floor area : |
1913 / 11596 m2 / 24hr 365days |
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| Heating and cooling / measures installed |
High efficiency gas condensing boilers for heating and hot water : installed - 2006
Cogeneration plant (electrical output 15 kW – heat output 40 kW) : activated end of 2006
Connection for future solar thermal and photovoltaic panels : installed -2006
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| Energy label/CO2 emissions |
Before : Energy F/G ; CO2 F/G ; Water F/G
After : Energy E/F ; CO2 E/F ; Water E/F
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Project Description |
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| Aim |
Provide flats with secure and efficient heating and hot water system while improving environmental performance from system that allows renewables to be seamlessly connected later. |
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| Key points |
- AGEC were already facing costs for replacing over half of the heating and hot water systems in the flats and therefore decided to install a completely new system
 The 228 autonomous systems will have a single centralised heating plant for hot sanitary water and heat, composed by high efficiency gas condensing boilers
An additional cogeneration system is being installed for thermal and electric energy production
Realization of a system for remote control and recording the individual flats consumptions
Pre-installed connections for solar thermal panels for hot water production
Pre-installed connections for photovoltaic panels
All technical work and scoping was carried out by AGEC who were responsible for the spending and controlling costs |
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| Reason for inclusion as Shining Example |
- By working with AGEC, Verona were able to fully assess the potential costs and savings before installing
Using a tendering process and giving a single company responsibility for the entire project means they have an ongoing incentive to ensure work is completed properly and runs efficiently
There is a long term plan with a number of stages. The current work has been designed to allow future solar photovoltaic and solar thermal panels to be seamlessly connected later
Very ambitious technically – co-generation with individual metering maximizes the savings and helping occupants use energy more sustainably by allowing each apartment to measure and control how much they use.
Centralised system simplifies and optimises the maintenance and increases safety |
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Costs&Benefits |
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| Costs &
funding
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Total cost : € 1.9 million contract awarded to AGEC
Funding : € 1.4 million from Verona City Council ; € 0.5 million from Veneto region |
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| Benefits |
The actual consumption of natural gas for hot sanitary water and heating is almost 340.000 Nm3 annually.
The foreseen natural gas saving will be almost 59.000 Nm3, i.e. 17.34 %.
The net environmental gain will be a lower emission of 115.64 CO2 tonnes annually.
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Partners&Roles |
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| Partnership details |
AGEC is the municipality owned contractor. AGEC has full control and responsibility for all the work and subsequent maintenance. This included all the planning and assessing the costs and savings.
From the projected energy use Verona City Council, who provided most of the funding, were able to estimate the energy performance using the Display™ system.
The Veneto region provided additional project funding. |
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Recommendations |
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| Achievments |
Installed new heating system which is providing hot water and heating.
Cogeneration plant coming online at the end of 2006.
Ongoing monitoring and testing to calibrate the system during the first year.
Costs can be reduced by including improvements into normal refurbishment cycle.
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| Lessons Learned |
_ Comprehensive planning is essential for successful refurbishment at this scale.
Good replication potential – Individual apartment boilers can be replaced with community heating system.
While there are no boilers in each flat, maintenance is still needed ; however, possible maintenance cost and contracts for the occupants are still being studied by AGEC.
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