The local partners open their doors to online visitors with three videos and a virtual tour. Walk through 4RinEU demo cases with them!

N.B. All tours are in local languages.

Norway – guided video tour

The Netherlands – virtual 360° tour

Spain – video presentation

Italy – guided video tour

The “La Vall 9” building in Bellpuig, Spain, was renovated with cutting-edge technology for deep energy renovation

The residential four-story building is part of the EU-funded project 4RinEU. The renovation took place between 2020 and 2021 and involved the use of prefabricated multifunctional timber façade modules to improve the insulation and cut the primary energy demand of the building by 60%.

Read La Vall 9 full story

Over the past years, the building in Pinerolo, Italy, underwent several renovations to improve its energy efficiency. 4RinEU went a step further. Now the building has a brand new centralised system which allows to manage the distribution of energy, the production of domestic hot water, as well as the temperature of each apartment through heating, cooling and ventilation. The heat pump installed by the project is powered with green energy produced by the PV panels on the roof. All this with minimal interventions inside the dwellings.

Learn more about the deep energy renovation of the Italian case study with this guided tour in company our partner Tecnozenith.

Don’t forget to switch on the subtitles!

The makeover of 4RinEU demo case in the Netherlands was completed in July 2020. According to the latest estimates, energy demand will be reduced by 80%

Mariënheuvel is a residential building for elderly people located in Soest and owned by the social housing agency Woonzorg Nederland. 4RinEU intervention consisted in the installation of timber prefabricated façade modules with integrated sun shadings and the placement of an upgraded HVAC system which couples mechanical ventilation and heat recovery. The prefabricated modules were designed by an international team made of project partners Gumpp & Maier, Eurac Research and Aderma and were then produced by the local manufacturer Prefabfabriek Culemborg. The onsite installation was carried out under supervision of Trecodome and lasted only three weeks. The whole process is documented by a time lapse video.

The results so far are promising: it is estimated that thanks to the deep renovation the building will increase its value by 50% and cut down its energy demand by 80%. Over the next few months Woonzorg Nederland will hand out questionnaires to the residents to collect feedback on their experience.

Read more on the renovation process of Mariënheuvel and watch the gallery here!

Haugerudsenteret (Oslo, Norway) – Our first success story. Energy performance to be assessed

The Norwegian demo case, located in Oslo, is the first example of a successful implementation of 4RinEU methodology. The renovation works took place in the second half of 2018 and lasted only eight weeks, during which the tenants kept living in their dwellings.

The interventions implied a massive use of 4RinEU timber prefabricated technology to refurbish both the roof and the façade of the building, the latter being integrated with new windows and PV panels. New air handling units connected to the prefabricated façade by means of ventilation ducts have been installed in dedicated technical rooms. Our researchers are currently analysing the data collected before and after the renovation works to assess the improvement of the building’s energy performance.

Read more about Haugerundsenteret deep energy renovation

Mariënheuvel (Soest, The Netherlands) – Renovation works on hold

In the Netherlands, 4RinEU is renovating part (15 over 79 total apartments) of a big apartment block for social housing.

Our strategy here includes the application of a timber prefabricated façade with integrated sun shadings, the replacement of balconies and the enhancement of the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system through the introduction of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery.

The renovation works were supposed to start towards the end of March with a view to being completed by May. Due to the global emergency caused by COVID-19, the building site had to stop its activities. Despite this, the production of prefabricated façade modules  could go ahead as planned, and so did the evaluation process for the installation of the monitoring system which will allow us to compare the building’s performance in terms of energy efficiency before and after the interventions. The construction site will reopen by July 2020.

La Vall 9 (Bellpuig, Spain) – Tender to find a constructor postponed

The Spanish demo of Bellpuig consists of a recently built multifamily house with poor performances.

4RinEU will renovate the east-oriented main façade by installing timber prefabricated façade modules, which will include new windows with shading system, decentralised ventilation machines with heat recovery and PV panels. The placement of the façade has been optimised using EarlyReno, a tool created by the project to help designers and professionals choose the best renovation strategy to maximise the use of renewable energy. In line with the other demos, a monitoring system will be set-up to evaluate the performance in the pre and post retrofit condition.

After a few months of closure, the activities in Bellpuig are now resuming starting with the procurement process for the selection of a constructor. Renovation works will start by autumn 2002 and will last approximately four months from the appointment of the construction company.

A new demo: Pinerolo, Italy

The recently acquired demo case of Pinerolo, Italy, will see the implementation of the 4RieEU plug&play hydronic technology in a multifamily house with 13 dwellings.

The renovation concept that will be tested in this demo is based on three pillars: reducing fossil fuel consumption, increasing the efficiency of the HVAC and finally producing and delivering DHW (domestic hot water). The project involves the installation of an inverse heat-pump connected to the existing condensing boilers via hydronic modules. Thanks to a digital controller, the hydronic modules supply water for domestic use and space heating while minimising energy consumption. The heat pump will be placed over the rooftop, while the 13 hydronic modules (one for each dwelling) will be located under the roof, in a space which is not used at present. All the duct connections between the hubs and the components with the apartments will pass through a cavity in the ventilated façade.

As for the impact of the current crisis on the renovation works and monitoring phase, hydronic units and other components are being produced by Thermics, but the delivery to the demo will be delayed of a few months.

Read more on 4RinEU new demo site in Pinerolo

Looking ahead

«At the time the lockdown was announced, the four demo buildings were at different stages of progress, from procurement to monitoring of the building’s performance after deep renovation» said the project’s coordinator Roberto Lollini from Eurac Research. «Fieldwork stalled, but in conformity with 4RinEU approach, we could still analyse data and work on several activities, like the off-site preparation of prefabricated components». Despite the challenges and uncertainties posed by this situation, Mr. Lollini is confident on the possibility to complete the activities in the construction sites by the end of the year and then start evaluating the benefits of the interventions in terms of energy consumptions, comfort, timing of the construction site and costs in the life cycle, as well as the environmental impact.

A new demo case has been introduced within the project. This demo will be used to test the Plug&Play Energy Hub (PPEH) technology developed within 4RinEU by partners Eurac Research and Thermics.

This building is a multifamily house with 13 dwellings. Flats vary from one to three rooms, with different sizes between 35 m² and of 60 m². The building consists of two floors and it develops in length. There is a total of six flats on the ground floor and seven flats on the first floor.

The building already has undergone some retrofit in the last years. This consisted of the replacement of the external doors and windows of the units and the substitution of old boilers with condensation ones. An attic, under the two-pitched roof, was isolated with thin fibreglass insulation covering the ground. In addition, a photovoltaic system of 8 kW of peak power was installed.

This demo case has recently been deeply renovated thanks to a European H2020 project  BuildHEAT. With this demo case, 4RinEU has taken the advantages of the deep renovation and contributed to enhancing the performance of the building, testing PPEH technology developed within 4RinEU project. The interventions for Pinerolo demo case are summarised here below:

• renovation of the building envelope;
• installation of a new ventilation system for each flat;
• installation of a new heating and cooling system;
• installation of a new system for sanitary hot water production;
• substitution of the insulation on the horizontal parts.

Plug and Play Energy Hub

The preliminary concept is to install an air-to-water inverter heat pump with 2 pipes, provided by Thermics, partner of 4RinEU project. This unit gives the possibility to manage separately the high-temperature and low-temperature circuits. This solution works in combination with a storage tank where the temperature is monitored and therefore a three-way-valve is controlled.

The PPEH system is a hydronic system controlled by an integrated digital controller providing the following functionalities:

• the supply of space heating and instantaneous domestic hot water when connected to a hot water source;
• the provision of an account of thermal energy consumed by the final user, distinguishing between domestic hot water and space heating.

The PPEH system is integrated into the heating system. Thanks to these connections and proper managing of the valves in the circuit, also the cooling operation should be guaranteed during the summer period, since the heat pump can work in cooling mode, providing cooled water to fan coils.

Thanks to the integration of the PPEH coupled with the heat pump, together with passive measures aiming to the increase of the thermal performances of the building envelope, a reduction for heating consumption from 51.4 MWh/year to 18.1 MWh/year is expected. Moreover, at least the 90% of this 18.1 MWh/year will be provided by renewable energies (in this case photovoltaic system).

As far as the sanitary hot water consumption is concerned (9.6 MWh/year with 200 m³/year of water), after the renovation, 3.7 MWh/year will be produced using the photovoltaic system combined with the heat pump. The remaining 5.9 MWh/year will still be produced by the heating boiler.

Good news from the Spanish side: at the beginning of December, the Construction tender for Bellpuig has been opened!

After the definition of the renovation concepts to be applied on the demo, the Agència de l’Habitage de Catalunya, owner of the building, worked on the internal approval and official publication of the tender.

Now, a new phase has started and companies have 1 month for presenting their offers. At the end of January, the final loop for completing the renovation works of the Bellpuig demo building will start.

The retrofit intervention sponsored by 4RinEU project will include the installation of the timber prefabricated multifunctional façade integrating PV modules, decentralized mechanical ventilation machines with heat recovery and new windows with shading system. The new façade will ensure higher thermal and comfort performances to the building, as well as a new good-looking aesthetical appearance.

The Norwegian demonstration building is a two-floor building with eight small dwellings in total, located at Haugerud in the city of Oslo. Haugerud is a suburb in the east of Oslo with housing developments and houses built around the metro station.
The demonstration building is only a two minutes’ walk from the metro station. It has a simple geometry with a lot of space around it, which was considered an advantage when looking for a suitable demonstration building for the 4RinEU project. Boligbygg is the partner in 4RinEU that is responsible for the Norwegian demonstration case, and it is a municipal enterprise that owns, manages and leases Oslo’s municipal housing.
This demonstration building is 100% publicly owned by the city of Oslo. The city of Oslo is one of the cities in the world with highest ambitions when it comes to climate action. The target is to reduce climate gas emissions with 95 % by 2030, and Oslo is well on its way and has reduced the emissions by 16 % since 2015. Oslo has been reworded for its effort by being awarded the European Green Capital 2019 Award.

Finding the right supplier
An important target was to find a supplier that saw the potential in the solution and that wanted to develop a solution for a larger market. Norway has a long tradition using prefabricated elements for new buildings. However, this is the first project that uses prefabricated façade elements for a renovation. This is a completely new technology and market in Norway. At last, Boligbygg signed a contract with Lindal treindustri: a multidisciplinary collaboration began amongst a designer, an architect, a construction engineer, a timber-elements specialist, an energy specialist, an electrical designer and an HVAC expert.

Designing the elements
In the design phase, Boligbygg depended on the resources from the 4RinEU team. All the research partners – Sintef, EURAC, and Gumpp&Mayer – were working closely with Boligbygg in this phase. One of the main decisions in the design phase was the choice of renovation package and what technologies to integrate into the solution. Boligbygg had to evaluate the technologies and solutions based on the local building legislation and local climate conditions and needs. BIM was used throughout the whole design phase in order to achieve the level of detailed needed in order to produce the elements at the factory with minimal adjustments on site.

Production and renovation
The elements were cut automatically but built manually. Integration of PV was new to everybody and the design team had to design an original system. Also considering the building height, the elements were joined vertically to reduce the risk of construction errors. This was possible because the demo-case was a low-rise building, and there was enough space around it.
The transportation to the construction site was considered a risk and the driver had to be careful. The transportation time was about 3-4 hours. The renovation phase lasted the summer period. Every detail was carefully thought and designed, as well as the logistics was detailly planned. Good coordination, skilled workers were important success factors. The team used lifts and had to spin the elements around in the air in order to have enough room.

Results
The overall result is an improved building, with improved levels of insulation, PVs and balanced ventilation. The building works period was relatively short, though longer than planned, and the tenants lived within the apartment during the deep renovation process. Lindal is now aiming for a certification of the system and want to introduce it into the market.
One of the main success factors has been the cooperation with the tenants. Especially in consideration to the fact that many tenants stayed at home during the day; therefore, the aspects of good communication and safety were crucial. Information work was very important.

+ READ MORE about the Oslo Demo-Case 

The technologies developed within 4RinEU are implemented and tested in 3 Demo-Cases. In Oslo, a  two-storey property that contains eight small flats, each with a living room, open kitchen, small bedroom, bathroom and hallway has been chosen as Demo-Case. The building dates from 1974 and has never been renovated.

Due to their characteristics, the walls are thus prone to heat loss in winter, increasing heating demands. They also “breathe” due to air passage through the structure, and this must be considered during wall insulation upgrades and imperviousness improvements. It has been decided to install balanced ventilation to boost energy conservation, and a more impervious and better insulated roof will be built to achieve the 60% energy savings target.

Existing foundations are not designed to support more than the present structure, and cannot be reinforced. New prefabricated façade elements and the roof must thus be seated on new foundations surrounding the building. This is not optimal, either with regard to costs or building time.

Among the main aims of the project is to minimise inconvenience to residents. For this reason, façade upgrades will comprise timber frame elements with integrated technology. Ventilation ducts will be integrated if practical and an evaluation is being made of installing solar panels. Inside, stairways will be upgraded with a glass frontage and new entrance. Most ventilation ducts will be routed via the stairways.

Pre-monitoring was installed in April 2017 to provide continuous data on air quality and energy consumption in two flats. Extensive post-monitoring is planned to assess the effect of the project, and it will be interesting to compare datasets. Additional 4RinEU technology (Sensible Building Data Handler) will also be used.

This renovation approach is quite innovative for Norway since prefabricated façade elements are not commonly used. For this reason it took some time to find a local supplier for adapting the 4RinEU concepts, as elaborated by the consortium and adapting, according to the local specificities and for manufacturing the prefabricated elements. We eventually started a collaboration with Lindal Treindustri. Lindal has been involved for the development, manufacture, supply and all contracting work. The group includes architectural and planning managers, specialist consultants in energy, construction, HWS, fire protection and electrical installation. A separate company will be planning, supplying and installing the solar panels. SINTEF, one of the project partners, will provide frequent and valuable technical assistance.

Finally, the retrofit project is beginning to take shape and the next steps become clearer: the planning phase will proceed until April and by around May the project will enter in the production phase. The starting of the construction site is foreseen for next June.

In order to increase the replication potential of the 4RinEU deep renovation packages (including technologies, methodologies and business models), the project adopts a geo-cluster approach.

In each geo-cluster, there will be either a Demo-Case, which will undergoes deep renovation process from the design phase to the monitoring during operation, and an Early Adopter building, where a feasibility study for a renovation with 4RinEU approach will be carried out.

Starting from the outcomes from the EU-funded project Ge2O, we defined the boundaries of 6 EU geo-clusters, according to climate, requirements in case of renovation and consistency of the residential building stock.

In particular, in order to take into account the climate conditions, we adopted the Heating Degree Days, for the building features the amount of multi/single family houses and the construction period as well as the main used construction materials (source: FP7 project iNSPiRe) and the minimum value of thermal transmittance for new constructions and renovation.

Accordingly, the project 4RinEU adopts the following geo-clusters:

1. Geo-cluster 1 | Northern
   Northern Europe countries with cold climate and prevalence of single-family houses – Demo-Case 1 in Norway
2. Geo-cluster 2 | North-East
   Country with cold climate, large amount of multi-family houses built between 1960 and 1990, with prefabricated concrete panels that present low energy performance – Early Adopter building in Poland
3. Geo-cluster 3 | East
   Continental climate, main building typology is single-family with a significant amount of multi-family houses built after the Second World War with prefabricated concrete structure – Early adopter building in Hungary
   
4. Geo-cluster 4 | Continental Central
   This cluster includes central and West Europe. The building stock in the cluster is mainly composed by single-family houses and there is no prevailing construction period, thus the stock presents different construction features (masonry, concrete or prefabricated structure) – Demo-Case 2 in the Netherlands
   
5. Geo-cluster 5 | Mediterranean
   This cluster includes Mediterranean countries with warmer climate where the building stock is split almost equally in single and multi-family houses built in different construction periods mainly with masonry or concrete structures – Demo-Case 3 in Spain
6. Geo-cluster 6 | Atlantic
   Focused on UK area, with cold oceanic climate and single-family houses as main building type – Early Adopter building in the UK

Further than the Demo-Cases and the Early Adopters, a set simulations and analyses to tailor the 4RinEU renovation packages, according to the geo-cluster features and needs, will be carried out for a set of representative Building Archetypes selected for each geo-cluster.