A demonstration target limited liability housing company Pohjolankatu took part in the Finnish national local energy solution competition held by Finnish Clean Energy Association. The housing company received an honorary award for its first-of-its-kind two-way district heating system in residential buildings.
Eight of the best pilot buildings entered in the competition are from Tampere's pilot district, Tammela. The project is run by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the City of Tampere and limited liability housing companies involved in the project have received €1,400,000 in subsidies from the EU for their energy refurbishments.
Since the beginning of the project in 2013, the housing company has been one of the most eager housing companies to implement new age technology solutions in their building. The chairperson of the board of the housing company, Pertti Vesterinen, has been driving renovation projects fearlessly forward and thus the housing company had time to carry out two renovation campaigns during the EU-GUGLE project. Pohjolankatu has introduced several energy-efficient systems in their building. These systems include a two-way district heating system, solar heat collectors and panels (PV), exhaust air and ground source heat pumps, wastewater heat recovery, LED lightning and a novel automation and monitoring system. The housing company also renewed windows and doors to meet modern standards and air-conditioning units were installed in every apartment.
The EU-GUGLE project is monitoring behaviour and energy consumption of the systems installed until the project finishes at the end of 2018. Thus far, Pohjolankatu 18-20 has decreased their energy consumption by 56%. All eight housing companies have saved 40% on their energy costs.
