06 July 2020. As part of our joint project of the Ministry of Construction of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) “Market transformation for sustainable rural housing in Uzbekistan”, 60 houses in rural areas in five regions will be examined by energy audit specialists. The aim of the project is to provide the rural population of Uzbekistan with improved, affordable and environmentally friendly living conditions.

An energy audit is carried out to determine the efficiency of the use of fuel and energy resources, the real state of energy consumption of a building, including the analysis of the technical characteristics of the building envelope, the energy consumption characteristics of engineering equipment, the structure of energy consumption during the year, and to reveal the potential for reducing energy consumption and  the rationale for future measures to increase the energy efficiency level of a house. This energy audit will help to identify problems with the loss of thermal energy and to develop a technical and engineering solution to save energy and extend the life of buildings.

The energy audit of rural houses will be carried out in several stages. At the first two stages, the monitoring and information processing will be done in the summer period, at the third stage the monitoring will cover the winter period and at the final stage the summary information for the cold and hot months will be analyzed. The final report will contain monitoring data on the level of energy consumption in energy-efficient and low-carbon rural houses, the energy audit of the actual annual consumption of heat and electricity, as well as the assessment of the energy balance and general efficiency of houses. This will also help to determine the level of corresponding greenhouse gas emissions and the costs of residents for their energy consumption.

In June, an audit was conducted in Surkhandarya, Samarkand and Ferghana regions. In each region the specialists visited 12 houses, of which two typical houses, four energy-efficient, four low-carbon houses with installed photovoltaic systems (FES), as well as two houses equipped with a FES and a solar collector.

Instrumental measurements of the thermal conductivity of building envelopes, illumination, temperature, humidity and FES were carried out. Hygrometers recording  the external and internal, temperature and humidity are installed in all 12 houses to collect information during the energy audit.

The data collected during the monitoring will help to compare energy-efficient low-carbon houses with typical rural houses built as part of the State program in 2018 in similar climatic conditions.

After processing and analyzing the results, the technical, organizational and economic procedures will be developed to reduce energy costs, as well as to increase the energy efficiency of rural houses.

The energy auditing process is carried out with the full support of the residents of energy-efficient houses, who independently monitor the conditions of the meters during the project, fill out questionnaires, record daily energy consumption indicators and resource consumption.

“Energy audit is something that needs to be seriously considered. It is important for energy saving and increasing energy efficiency, as it helps not only to save energy and heat, but also finances, ” - said Zarif Garayev, a representative of the energy audit company.

In Uzbekistan, in 2019, 800 one-story 3-room energy and power houses were built, including 176 houses in Samarkand, 185 houses in Surkhandarya, 206 houses in Ferghana, 112 houses in Khorezm and 121 houses in Bukhara regions. Our joint project with Ministry of Construction of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the GEF “Market transformation for sustainable rural housing in Uzbekistan” installed 300-watt photovoltaic power plants (FES) for lighting needs, as well as 200-liter solar water heaters for hot water supply in 10 accessible rural standard houses in five pilot regions of Uzbekistan.