Fighting against fuel poverty by collaborating with social services through energy advice: An innovative case from Spain

The aim of this article is to describe the efforts against energy poverty of G oiEner, an energy cooperative in Spain, giving energy advice to the social services of two municipalities, Zarautz and Usurbil. Electricity contracts of low-income households were revised and improvements were proposed, according to the specificities of the Spanish electricity market; prioritising the regulated tariff with social bonus, then time-of-use tariff and optimising power capacity. Switching to the regulated tariff can realise savings of around 10%, theoretically up to a 40% if the rest of the optimizations are included. Unexpectedly, some of the household were reluctant to change the conditions of their contracts. Training sessions were organised so that in the future this intervention could be done without the help of GoiEner. Conclusions can be drawn on how GoiEner can capture the possibilities new technologies, such as smart meters, offer.; El objetivo de este artículo es describir los esfuerzos contra la pobreza energética de GoiEner, una cooperativa energética de España, que presta asesoramiento energético a los servicios sociales de dos municipios, Zarautz y Usurbil. Se revisaron los contratos de electricidad de hogares de bajos ingresos y se propusieron mejoras, de acuerdo con las especificidades del mercado eléctrico español; priorizando la tarifa regulada con bono social, luego la tarifa discriminación horaria y la optimización de la potencia contratada. El cambio a la tarifa regulada puede suponer un ahorro de alrededor del 10%, teóricamente hasta un 40% incluyendo el resto de optimizaciones. Sin embargo, algunos hogares se mostraron reacios a cambiar las condiciones de sus contratos. Se organizaron formaciones para que en el futuro esta intervención pudiera hacerse sin ayuda. Se pueden sacar conclusiones sobre cómo GoiEner podría beneficiarse de las posibilidades que ofrecen las nuevas tecnologías, e.g. medidores inteligentes

Improving energy poverty measurement in southern European regions through equivalization of modeled energy costs

IUIDB/04085/2020 ENGAGER 2017-2021, CA16232In many European countries, energy poverty is measured on the basis of real energy bills, as theoretical energy costs are hard to calculate. The UK is an exception—the data inputs for the Low Income-High Cost (LIHC) indicator are based on reasonable energy costs, these data are collected through specially designed surveys, often an intensive and costly procedure. Approaches which calculate energy needs are valid when energy bill data are unreliable or where households restrict consumption. In this analysis, energy poverty levels are evaluated for Greece, the municipality of Évora (Portugal), and the Basque Country (Spain): energy bills are modeled based on building energy performance data and other energy uses, and adjusted according to socio-demographic variables. To this end, equivalization weights are calculated using socio-economic data from the aforementioned southern European countries/regions. Data are analyzed to compare measurements with actual versus modeled bills using the Ten-Percent Rule (TPR) and Hidden Energy Poverty (HEP) against twice the median (2M) indicator, enhancing the identification of households with low energy consumption. In conclusion, theoretical energy needs can be combined with socio-demographic data instead of actual energy bills to measure energy poverty in a simplified way, avoiding the problem of targeting households that under consume.publishersversionpublishe

Salt Damage and Rising Damp Treatment in Building Structures

Salt damage can affect the service life of numerous building structures, both historical and contemporary, in a significant way. In this review, various damage mechanisms to porous building materials induced by salt action are analyzed. The importance of pretreatment investigations is discussed as well; in combination with the knowledge of salt and moisture transport mechanisms they can give useful indications regarding treatment options. The methods of salt damage treatment are assessed then, including both passive techniques based on environmental control, reduction of water transport, or conversion to less soluble salts and active procedures resulting in the removal of salts from deterioration zones. It is concluded that cellulose can still be considered as the favorite material presently used in desalination poultices but hydrophilic mineral wool can serve as its prospective alternative in future applications. Another important cause of building pathologies is the rising damp and, in this phenomenon, it is particularly severe considering the presence of salts in water. The treatment of rising damp in historic building walls is a very complex procedure and at Laboratory of Building Physics (LFC-FEUP) a wall base hygroregulated ventilation system was developed and patented