Renovation makes old house in Romania more people-friendly…

The Dragomir family lives in a five-room house in the city of Craiova.

The 100m² building was hard to keep warm and comfortable during the winter, so the family took a GEFF credit from Banca Transilvania to insulate their home, using 10cm of external wall insulation and installing sealed double-glazed windows. All materials meet the high technical insulation standards set by EBRD for the GEFF.

Having insulated, the family went on to replace the air conditioner with an energy-efficient 12,000 BTU Ariston Inverter model. The Dragomirs understood the double-benefit of insulating homes in temperate continental climates like Romania, which can become very hot in winter and also very cold in summer. Insulation not only keeps heat inside during winter, but also prevents air-conditioned cool air from escaping during the summer.

According to Minodora Dragomir

‘We made this investment in the hope that we will improve the comfort of our home and also lower our energy consumption, and hence the monthly costs we have to pay to gas and electricity suppliers. We also intend to continue to buy only energy-efficient technologies in the future’.

Banca Transilvania provided a personal loan within the framework of the Green Economy Finance Facility (GEFF) programme. According to Product Manager Robert Szilagyi:

‘For our customers, thermal insulation and sealed double-glazed windows not only help to keep the home warm in winter, but also lower cooling needs during the summer, particularly when combined with an energy-efficient air conditioner. Green credits from Banca Transilvania are designed to finance exactly this kind of investment, improving comfort, minimising energy use and hence helping the environment.’

Tractebel Engineering, the GEFF Facility Consultant, maintains the Techology Selector, an online database of green technologies that can be used by the Dragomir Family and others to identify energy-saving technologies that meet high technical performance standards established for the GEFF by EBRD.

The Green Economy Financing Facility is an initiative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). GEFFs combine technical knowledge with finance to help clients of participating financial institutions like Banca Transilvania to invest in high-performing technologies. So far, EBRD provided almost €4.2 billion of financing through 130 local financial institutions in 24 countries through GEFF.

For more information, please visit:

www.ebrdgeff.com