Sustainable Energy Successees

   

The First Romanian Energy Brigades in Action in a Kindergarten

The First in Romania
The Earth Friends became the national coordinator of the International Energy Brigade (IEB) Romania in September ,2002. The Romanian Energy Brigades project is the first one in Romania dealing with practical activities in the area of thermal rehabilitation or so called weatherisation of buildings. Improving the heating insulation in concrete homes or a public building demonstrates that NGOs are able to turn verbal claims of how to save energy into concrete results. The labour for this service is done by volunteers. The cost of the materials is covered either by the building owners or buy outside funds.

Two Days for Five Volunteers
The weatherisation of the state-owned No. 6 kindergarten in Galati was the first action accomplished by Romanian Energy Brigades in this year (2002). It was a typical activity for an “Energy Brigade”. The beneficiaries are 60 children between the ages of 3 and 6, along with 3 educators
The kindergarten is on the ground floor of a block of flats, and has 9 rooms (principal’s room included). It occupies 2 flats, 4 rooms + 5 rooms, both with similar orientations. It has two similar wings. We’ve insulated the 5-room apartment, leaving the other uninsulated. This will allow the Brigades to audit the thermal performances of the insulation by comparing the temperatures of the two wings of the kindergarten. The activities began in mid-November. The heating is provided by the central heating system.
The actual activity took two days (16 hours) for 5 volunteers, 17 to 24 years old. The windows and doors needed substantial repairs; the locks have been repaired or changed. To insulate the windows better, we removed the old and damaged layer of putty and installed a new one. We used 70 m silicon strips, 2 window locks, 1 door lock, scotch tape, putty, screws, nails. The total material costs were 1,500,000 ROL = 45 EUR.

Activity Development
Before and during the insulation, the volunteers were trained on how to use the electrical machines (drilling machine, the circular saw, milling machine).
Prior to the insulation activity, we had two workshops with the volunteers, presenting the Energy Brigades concept, energy-saving importance, sustainable development, and various technical issues regarding energy efficiency.
The volunteers mastered the main ideas necessary for understanding the insulation activity; appreciating not only the direct gains (improving their working skills, working in teams etc) but also the indirect ones (comprehension of energy importance in our every day life, volunteering for social reasons).

Follow-up of the Activity
The Energy Brigades will give to the kindergarten thermometers and tables for collecting data for the energy audit of the insulated rooms. The data will be collected by the educators and children, making this activity a daily game.

Impressions of the volunteers (excerpts from the evaluation questionnaire):

“It’s important for people to understand that such activities can make the difference.”
“I’ve learned how to weatherize the doors and windows, how to use the tools and the materials for insulation, how we can protect ourselves against noise and dust.”
“I had the chance to learn something new, to work in a team.”
“I’ve learned a lot about energy saving.”