Modernisation of private houses

Five owners of one- and two-family homes participated in the Concerto/act2 project and had finished their building measures by the end of 2008. Each homeowner lives in the Concerto district of Ahlem. Three of them retrofitted their homes, a total of 828 m² living area, to the ‘New Build' standard and installed 32 m² solar thermal units; the remaining two homeowners upgraded their dwellings (four buildings with1,546 m² living area) to 'Kronsberg Standard' along with a 12 m² solar thermal installation. The first efficiency monitoring test results will be available by the end of 2009.

Each homeowner was advised by ‘Energy Assistant' during the construction phase, who subsequently carried out a quality review at the end of each home's retrofitting.

Hannover Region Climate Protection Agency carried out several ‘Gut beraten starten' (Get Smart before you Start) house-to-house campaigns in the Concerto city districts during the years 2006 to 2008; the purpose of these campaigns was to contact and support private homeowners in their energy efficiency upgrading efforts. The agency carried out these campaigns in collaboration with the local utility foundation Enercity Fonds proKlima on behalf of the City of Hannover.

The first of these were carried out during 2006 in the Ahlem und Vahrenwald districts, in 2007 a campaign was again carried out in the Ahlem district, and finally in 2008 in the Vinnhorst district; these districts mostly comprise one- and two- family dwellings.

Specific invitations were sent out to homeowners, craft workers and architects in each district to attend three-week information seminars concerning Concerto/act2 and find out about the relevant subsidy opportunities from Hannover City Council as well as hear an account of what a finished model household would look like. During each three week period, energy advisors gave one-hour initial consultations to homeowners who expressed interest in receiving additional information. Extensive public relations activities were carried out in the district for each campaign.

The ‘Gut beraten starten' campaigns focused on one- and two-family homeowners in the Concerto districts reached their conclusion at the end of 2008. Expertise gathered from these campaigns will now be used to provide information and consultation services to apartment block owners, who represent a significant target group in Hannover as many of these blocks were built after World War II and are considered to be very poor in terms of energy efficiency.