The municipality of Tirano in Italy conducted energy audits on 10 public buildings to assess energy efficiency improvements. The audits included collecting data on building envelopes and systems, modeling energy usage, and suggesting renovation solutions. Detailed audits for 2 buildings analyzed certifications and thermo images to identify retrofits. The municipality aims to audit all its buildings to intelligently manage resources and raise citizen awareness of good energy practices.

1. GOOD PRACTICE TEMPLATE
Energy Audit on Public Buildings
Title of the measure/initiative: Energy Audit on Buildings owned by the Municipality of
Tirano
Name of the organisation: City of Tirano
Status of the organisation: Municipality of Tirano, in Province of Sondrio
Address: Piazza Cavour 18, Tirano
Contact person: Gianmartino della Vedova (Deputy Mayor)
Phone: 0342-701256 Fax: 0342-704340
E-mail:
Web site : http://www.comune.tirano.so.it/
Topic (multiple answers are possible)
x Public Sector
 Private Sector
 Large Industrial Buildings
 Solar Plants
 District Heating
 Wind
 Biomass
 Geothermal energy
x Energy saving
 Energy efficiency
 Energy concepts
 Other, please specify ___________________________________________
Stakeholders (multiple answers are possible)
 Citizens
 Households
 Property owners
x Policymakers
x Local and regional authorities
 Energy service company (ESCO’s)
 Architects and engineers
 Other, please specify ____________________________________________

2. BACKGROUND
Existing public buildings are often the place where a lot of energy is consumed, because of
their typology or structure (they are in same case old and traditional) and because of their
particular use (lots of electric equipments and lightings). Starting to conceive a plan to define
the public buildings consumption in order to improve their energy performance is a good
practice and example to citizens, since their municipality is not only saying them: “Save
energy!”, but he’s trying to do that for his own properties, with the aim to find and apply the
best ways to improve energy efficiency in heating and cooling and, in a few words, use these
buildings.
OBJECTIVES
An energy audit provides a study of the building taking into account the surroundings
operating conditions in order to provide a building model on which to simulate different
renovation/retrofitting works assessing their own effectiveness in improving comfort and
efficiency and for what concerning emission reduction, energy saving and economic
convenience. The results are fundamental to reach a final decision on how implementing
measures to improve energy efficiency of buildings.
PROCESS
An energy audit starts from a data collection all over the building, regarding both the building
envelop (walls, floors, roofs, openings…) and the building systems (heating, cooling,
conditioning, ventilation…) and taking into account the surroundings operating conditions:
the user behavior, the real consumption, the climate, the building age and its position in the
urban planning. The results from this first step _Light Audit_ can be used afterwards to build
a model (using software and procedure) in order to suggest different renovation solutions, in a
_Detailed Audit_. For every solution the effectiveness will be calculated, assessing the energy
efficiency improvement after the work, as well as the CO2 emission reduction and providing
also a cost-benefit analysis calculating the return on investment.
For the case under exam 2 Detailed Audits were provided on the <Swimming Pool Building>
and the <School ‘Trombini’ Building>. In these cases the Energy Certifications were
provided and the thermo graphical analysis have been reported, and of course, being the first
step, the Light Audits.
The Light Audits were provided for the following 10 buildings:
Town Hall
‘Credaro’ Elementary School
‘Madonna’ Elementary School
‘Agricoltura’ Elementary School
Military Police Station
Ex-property Foppoli
House of the ARt
Ex Magistrate’s Court
Library new reading room
‘Arcari’ Library

3. FINANCIAL RESOURCES AND PARTNERS
The Audit Procedure has been carried out subscribing a CARIPLO tender for the “Promotion
of sustainability at a local level” – www.fondazionecariplo.it dealing with the Energy Audit
of Public Buildings owned by small and medium Municipalities (tender deadline jun 2007).
RESULTS
Other than start the study about the public buildings and to begin the construction of a
fundamental tool for the municipality decision makers (how can we make our building energy
efficient? The study results are a good starting point to answer this question), this initiative
helped to provide skills within the Local Council finalized to intelligent management of
resources and to raise citizen’s awareness through the promotion of
good practiced.
LESSONS LEARNED AND REPEATABILTY
This study has been done thanks to the participation to a tender for sustainability. Many other
possibilities are available in tenders to continue this process, also in other territories.
The main goal is to provide Detailed Audits for all the buildings in property of Tirano
Municipality (the tender required to plan light audit for all buildings and some detailed
analysis at least for the most energy-consumptive buildings identified or for the most relevant
regarding the local needs).
PHOTOS: (please include up to 3 photos)