Vitro Cristalglass, an affiliate of Vitro in Europe, is actively cooperating with the community of Madrid for the promotion of Plan Renove, a plan started in 2008, for window replacements in single an…
Vitro Cristalglass, an affiliate of Vitro in Europe, is actively cooperating with the community of Madrid for the promotion of Plan Renove, a plan started in 2008, for window replacements in single and multifamily homes, to improve the efficiency and energy savings in buildings. The Plan, authorized by the Government Council for the community of Madrid and agreed upon between Madrid“s Economic and Housing Council and the National Manufacturer“s Association of insulation materials (ANDIMAT) consists in the replacement of single pane windows with double pane reinforced thermal insulation windows in housing. Through this Plan Vitro is offering, to all those interested in substituting their old windows, a wide range of double pane Reinforced Thermal Windows (ATR) that allow for significant energy savings of between 20 and 40%, depending on the combination of windows, said Alberto Gmez, marketing manager for Vitro Cristalglass. The windows must comply with the Plan Renove specifications and cannot have a U transmission rate greater than 2.2 W/m2K. Our range of thermal NEUTRALUX, (ATR) windows allows for savings in this range and even greater by improving the insulation properties of windows and increase even more the energy savings, he added. The replacement of traditional windows with those with thermal insulating characteristics represents important advantages to home owners as well as the community of Madrid. Under this Plan, that contemplates a series of subsidies per home, estimates show that between 11,000 and 14,000 houses could benefit from the programme which affects 50 thousand Madrid residents. The reduction in energy consumption in the region would be 3,350 equivalent tons of oil per year, which translates into savings to the owners of EUR 1.95 million per year. The city of Madrid has approximately 2.5 million family homes which are responsible for about 25% of the energy consumption in the region. In addition, 40% of energy consumption is for heating and air conditioning so any action taken in insulation will have a direct impact on this cost. Through this Plan Madrid becomes the first Spanish community to put in place a Renove plan for windows which will contribute to energy savings in the region as well as the individual consumer. One of the points in any building where high energy loss takes place are the windows and double pane insulated windows can improve from 20 to 50% the insulation capacity of the space. Besides having an important impact on energy consumption in Madrid we hope the execution of this plan may serve, to a certain degree, the reactivation of construction affected by the current economic crisis, assures Gmez.