Energy efficiency and saving potential of population centers of a different size

ENEFIR-project was realized in the years 2010 – 2011. One topic was how to develop new metering and instrumentation concepts as well as analyzing tools to improve comprehensive energy performance of buildings. There were three pilot areas in Eastern Finland in the project: One bigger city (in Finnish circumstances), population 100 000, the energy performance of public buildings in relatively well managed, one medium-size small city (population 20 000) and one small community. The energy saving potential of public buildings medium and small size communities were analyzed based on the reference material compared with MOTIVA-material (results of energy audits of Motiva Ltd) and energy efficiency calculation tools. Motiva operates as an affiliated government agency and it is an expert company promoting efficient and sustainable use of energy and materials. In all pilot areas some demonstration buildings were chosen, in which the air tightness was measured using the building´s own ventilation system. The performance of building envelope was determined by thermal scanning. In some buildings the distribution of electricity consumption was measured. In the biggest city walk-through energy audit procedure was tested in two buildings. In the same city, three pairs of similar type of buildings were selected, the other with low heating energy consumption and the other of high heating energy consumption. The goal was to analyses which factors caused the differences in energy consumption. The conclusions,methods and measures vary depending on the type, size and resources of a community; the most important thing is to create a short- and long-term holistic program to improve the energy efficiency. One crucial topic is the use and development of existing building automation systems. In this paper the most important results and conclusions of the project will be presented.