Context

The pilot is located in the North-Western part of the city of Groningen. Most of the houses were built in the 1960’s and 1970’s, therefore they are not very well insulated. Some homeowners have done energy retrofits over the past years, but most of them haven’t, so the energy required from the district heating network must have the capacity to heat both well and less insulated houses.  In order to replace the old heating infrastructure, individual households need to join in and participate into the new district heating project. A lot of houses are owned by elderly people that have been living in the community since the beginning but there are young people (even families with children) too. There are also houses that serve as student homes and that host up to 6 students. In this area energy poverty plays an important role. For this reason, helping citizens with saving energy is also an important aspect in this neighborhood.