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Social Housing Policies and Best Practice Review for Retrofit Action - Case Studies from Parma (IT)

The paper aims at investigating the most suitable Energy Saving Measures –ESMs– for the retrofitting of Social Housing Stock –SHS– in Europe. A global awareness has been increasing, as well as education and training among architects and building sectors employees, in order to identify tailored financing schemes and advanced integrated retrofitting solutions. Several European financed programmes have been tested so far and the results are here summarized and deeply investigated in order to increase the energy performance of social housing buildings, to improve knowledge of problems associated with the retrofitting of these households, in order to provide the most appropriate solutions to be applied. Afterward, the best practices selected have been applied to some study cases in Italy, to demonstrate that the large variety of SH programmes in Europe can seriously be used, promoting the best practises’ application. A lot of theoretical and analytical work has been carried out by many European projects in the last decade, defining different approaches according to typologies of social housing buildings, focusing on national or regional regulation, on existing typologies and building techniques, on retrofitting solutions, on energy saving strategies and other managing approaches and energy saving devices. Due to the high participation of social housing organisations –SHO– and related European financed programmes, this academic research is focused on the most effective ESMs in order to encompass a large variety of needs and related solutions, even though some of them are still on course and other ones have already been completed. This research clearly demonstrates the valuable contribution these kinds of programme have in exchanging and sharing of knowledge and experience in the field of retrofit of Social Housing building across Europe, in order to primary improve the energy performance of the existing building stock and the quality of life of their inhabitants.


Introduction
Addressing the question of retrofit for Social Housing Stock SHS [1] means dealing with a huge range of existing building types, dissimilar in diffusion and consistency, in each European country and region. The experiences that come from numerous researches and design experiences converge to fix some critical points to work on to restore, or to give acceptable performance in even the recent existing built fabric, already severely ruined. The interventions so far proposed are usually made in order to rearrange the building structure and envelope in a way that can greatly affect the environmental conditions (acting in many directions and at different project scales). Considering the Italian ageing stock, characterized by a strong built identity and cultural significance for its diffusion and social importance, every retrofit action should keep in mind that the most of these buildings were not built with energy efficiency in mind, since most of them are dating from 1960 [2].
Similar results can be identified in several countries in Europe with a large variety of retrofit programs to be applied to residential buildings. All these European retrofit programs originate from the Intelligent Energy Europe IEE [3], launched in 2003 and now closed, that has defined many instruments to create an energy-intelligent future, involving energy efficiency and renewable energy policies, with a view to reaching the EU 2020 targets. IEE aimed at creating better conditions for a more sustainable energy future in several areas, as varied as renewable energy, energy-efficient buildings and many more. With this idea, IEE was divide in three parts, among those, Energy efficiency and the rational use of energy (SAVE) is the one involving the improvement of energy effectiveness and the rational use of resources in building sectors, by providing training and practical suggestion on construction techniques that can grant energy savings. SAVE involves though many programs in order to address energy saving actions for Social Housing Building stock. More than 40 European Retrofit programs for social housing stock have here been evaluated in order to classify the most suitable and effective practices to be transferred in Italy (table 1).
Considering that European Countries have a large residential building stock, erected from 1920 to 1970, which have to undergo energy retrofit or which need to be interested by urban renewal interventions, countries and related building technologies have to be considered separately, according to the climatic and heating needs, as well as consistent with different social housing policies [4].

Strategies and measures for sustainable Social Housing retrofit
The type of interventions carried out for the refurbishment of social housing stocks can differ greatly in the amount of resources needed and in performances obtained, as well as according to different county regulations and climatic needs. The overall energy performance optimization is therefore generally focused on two main aspects: the improvement of building insulation (i.e. addition of external insulation coating, roof insulation) and the increase of efficiency of heating systems (i.e. replacement of boiler, distribution system, as well as district heating). Considering the microclimatic condition adopting passive strategies like greenhouses or Trombe solar walls and proper shading systems can be implemented as well, although they must be carefully designed to be integrated into the building envelope and rooftop [5].
The results of this research have led to a guide of best practices, distinguishing among retrofit actions on building envelope, on energy devices and other categories (table 1-3), discriminating in measures to be used before intervention, during intervention phase and after retrofit action.
This research aims at supporting the assessment of the ESMs to be used in retrofit and refurbishment actions, deriving the best practices used in the most popular and valuable EU program for Social Housing (table 1), through establishing a common conceptual framework with precise definitions of the performance indicators and how to use them according to building type, building technologies and the geographical region and climate. The comparability of these measures and their related performances rely on a common understanding of the performance indicators and an identical methodology to measure them. Every measure assessed in the following tables is part of one or more than one programs (table  1), with specific attention to the building envelope, to thermal station for heating or cooling, and any other management measures. The conceptual framework carried out for each programme consists of: a global inventory of measures and actions to detect the best one to be applied according to specific building needs, in order to accomplish the economic, environmental and social impact of each measure; the creation of a sort of sourcebook, with definitions of the performance indicators to prove the applicability of interventions and the following performances to enhance building's energetic behaviour.   Retro-commissioning (RECx) 54 Evaluation of financial investments

Best practises application on 80's Social Housing buildings in Parma (IT)
The social housing building Stock in Italy is in a critical condition from several points of views, such as energy consumption, maintenance, inadequacy of size and facilities of the dwellings, barriers to accessibility [6]. Refurbishment of social housing stock has to consider multiple dimensions at once and to face these inadequate conditions. The study here presented, based on the previous ESMs survey, aims at testing a selection of those measures in two Italian Social Housing Building, erected in Parma in the early 80's. The two projects, which involved a whole re-design of a social housing building envelope and heating systems, aim at improving accessibility, indoor space distribution and sizing, is by focusing specifically on the energy performance improvement achievable through the envelope and heating system retrofitting. The two Social Housing edifices described were chosen because of they are the same age, but building construction techniques are totally different, making possible to test and evaluate the reliability of the Energy Saving Measures selected and proposed.
The approach adopted can be applied to numerous analogous projects on Social Housing Stock, both at the building and the urban neighbourhood scale. The evaluation of the performance through software simulation have been made according to regional energetic regulation (Regione Emilia Romagna [7]) in order to accurately appraise the enhanced outcomes of such projects and to disseminate them for effective refurbishment policies in the Italian Social Housing Stock.  The retrofit projects have both been done selecting the best practices relevant to buildings' needs. The approach has been finalized to a total retrofit of the building, instead of a simple thermal retrofit that ensure the reduction of the dispersion only through the replacement of heat generator or windows, in accordance to the selected measures, as presented in table 2-4. The best practices selected for the retrofit project are listed below in accordance with each building.    The primary energy consumption has been reduced by 84% (Bld. A) and 78% (Bld. B). In terms of energy savings, interventions on building shell can reduce the demand in the most effective way, since a heating system replacement only does not solve the problem of heating losses. The comparison among the different ESMs options considered in both energies retrofit interventions have to take into account the minimization of primary energy with respect to cost and in respect of CO 2 emissions. The increase of indoor quality reduces the possibility of structural damages and offers additional benefit for tenants. This kind of approach can achieve better energy-savings measures, getting to a faster return of investments, but mostly ensures benefit for indoor air quality and general indoor comfort for dwellers as demonstrated in may retrofit Italian projects [8] [9]. High costs also do not necessarily affect the costbenefit ratio, especially using best practices that allow an increase of the building value, such as rooftop addition; these measures can reduce the payback period, by maximizing capital return.  These projects aim at demonstrating that are several parameters that can greatly influence the choice of a specific renovation strategy and they are constrained both by technical factors, such as existing building features, heating systems and structural constraints, and by economic factors, such as investment cost and payback time. Energy service costs and comfort conditions provide also an important factor to be considered to obtain a consistent result. Considering that in Italy there is large number of SH buildings, from different ages and with different features, it is hard to define a standard protocol to use in retrofit action, but this kind of approach clearly demonstrate that the introduction of these energy saving measures can help in reducing the costs of running SH buildings. The lower income due to reduced energy consumptions could have compensated by an increase of prices per unit. Exchanging best practices thanks to the precise application of selected measures can thus increase building sectors knowledge and improve general expertise.