Newly built sustainable house for a family in Bulgaria

Hristo and Maria Stanev, a young couple with two small children, built their new sustainable home to high energy efficiency standards. Following the Residential Energy Efficiency Credit Line (REECL) consultants guidance, the family invested in a variety of high energy efficient technologies to make their home energy efficient and comfortable.

The Stanev family lived in an old inherited rural house in need of costly overhaul. The house used a lot of electricity to keep the family warm in winter. To reduce their expenses the family only heated 50% of their living space. They decided to look for a more comfortable, low maintenance home closer to their work in the area of Veliko Turnovo. To finance their new home they spoke to a few banks, including Piraeus Bank, for a mortgage loan. The family decided to take out a REECL mortgage loan and sell the old inherited property to finance the construction of a new sustainable prefabricated house with a garden in the village of Lyaskovets.

The availability of easy to obtain REECL mortgage loan, coupled with an sustainable energy investment incentive of 15% of the disbursed amount, acted as a catalyst and was a necessary element to consider taking out a larger loan to finance more expensive, high performance technologies that increase the comfort of living, create a better living environment for their children and reduce their energy bills. In addition, the REECL consultants’ reassurance, guidance and support played a key role in motivating the family to venture with confidence into a higher risk, more costly house building project.

The REECL consultants prepared a few energy models to guide the family to the least expensive measures required  to create a high energy efficient and comfortable home; helped them to navigate through a wide range of technologies; advised them on the potential of energy savings, financial-technical parameters and risks. The Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (KIDSF) supported the project by providing the investment incentive and technical assistance. As a result, the Stanley family invested in air to air heat pumps; heat recovery ventilation; low temperature gas heating; super-efficient windows and very high standard thermally insulated structural elements.

After spending a winter season in his new home, Mr. Stanev reported that in the coldest months the electricity bill for heating, lighting and appliances was around €35 per month whilst the gas bill for cooking and heating was around €75. All these costs were for a house of 206  m2, which is fully heated and comfortable to live in.

The new house led to a reduction of the CO2 emissions by 1,434 kg per year, making a valuable input towards mitigation of negative effect of human activity on climate in Bulgaria.

The Stanev family shared that they were very pleased with the results and if they had to do the project again, they would still choose to invest into an energy efficient house.

REECL Facility in Bulgaria is part of the GEFF programme and was developed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and is supported by the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (KIDSF).