Demonstrating Energy Efficiency

Designing a Program for Armenia's New Buildings

Two-thirds of Armenia's population lives in urban areas in 25 million square meters of apartments. Yet most of those buildings are uncomfortable and aging, since most are 30 to 60 years old, and have poor insulation.

Without exception, all these old buildings need repairs, and some need reconstruction. In energy use, Armenia's buildings represent the largest end-user.

President of NRGmagnet, Lisa Surprenant, was contracted by UNDP to prepare the Global Environment Facility chapter that outlines the demonstration building for illustrating energy efficiency in Armenia's new buildings through use of an "integrated building design approach" (IBDA).

The project's demonstration building in the city of Gyumri will be designed and built using IBDA, a mix of no-cost, low-cost tactics, and a range of EE/RE technologies and tactics.

Minimally, the demonstration building will use site positioning, orientation, micro-climate features, better thermal insulation, and advanced day-lighting.

To achieve consensus, the team designed a program to make the new codes practical to first-tier stakeholders like architects and engineers who will be trained in IBDA.

Without this project, an estimated 5.5 million m2 of new residential buildings would be designed and constructed in just ten years in Armenia and the financial losses to the country could be as high as US$ 190 million.

However, when successful, this demonstration project will train Armenia's architects and engineers to provide better designs by following the demonstration. Not only will Armenia save money but it will avoid an estimated 1.6 MtCO2e in GHG in just 20 years.

By introducing building codes and application of IBDA in state-funded construction, Armenia will bring their aging buildings into the modern world of energy efficiency.

 

NRGmagnet llc is a certified SWaM (small minority- or woman-owned business) with offices in the US and Holland. We provide a full range of energy efficiency, greening, and renewable energy program services. We have a unique set of core capabilities including: Policy and Program Design, Master Planning, Infrastructure Assessment, Analytics; Gender & Disaster Program Support, Capacity-Building and Training, Program Implementation and Evaluation, Green Building Consultation, Standards and Labeling, Codes Support, Water Efficiency, Vulnerability Assessments, Baseline Surveys, Communications and Marketing, Monitoring and Evaluation, and EU Accession Advice.