Success with property renovation in Russia

Total heat consumption has been dramatically reduced in the block which has been equipped with insulated exteriors, replacement windows, a new heat exchanger in the basement and a new top floor with sunlit apartments. The apartments will be rented to former military personnel who have returned from service in the Baltic countries.

The need to reduce energy consumption and deal with environmental problems has become ever more evident in Russia, where energy prices are approaching the world market level. It is therefore very important to find energy savings such as those demonstrated by the six Scandinavian Companies.

Grundfos has contributed to reducing energy consumption by using circulation pumps which employ tiny integrated frequency converters to regulate output auto-matically in response to current heat requi- rements. This automated process ensures that the pumps’ energy consumption is more than halved compared to traditional, unregulated pumps - an energy saving of global importance, as pump systems ac-count for almost 20% of the world’s total power consumption.

The apartment block project was used at the Baltic Development Forum Summit in St. Petersburg (23-25 September 2001) as a practical example of the conference theme “Closing the gap: Creating a win-win situation in the Baltic Sea Region”. On the last day of the conference the focus was on how the private sector can contribute to - and benefit from - cooperation on solutions for the huge environmental problems of the Baltic region.

Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, Danish president of the Baltic Development Forum, the organisation behind the summit, described the newly-renovated apartment block as a perfect example of cooperation between countries in the Baltic region, and a project in which everyone involved was a winner. He added that the project created “a better balance between the environment, economy and quality of life.”