Dipl. Eng. Armianov, what are your expectations about the newly opened scheme “Energy efficiency and green economy” under Operational program “Competitiveness”? Is there an increased interest in the implementation of energy-efficient HVAC systems by small and medium enterprises?

People started talking about energy efficiency in HVAC systems after the energy crises in 1973. Except many effective and clever ideas there were a lot of exotic ideas as well. One of them was the seasonal accumulation of heat in artificial underground tanks. I said “exotic” because there is no information about its real implementation. Only the heat pump installations like the usage of air energy or the natural battery – the ground is still existing and economically reasonable.

The interest about energy efficiency or energy saving systems follows the rise in prices of primary energy sources. Something more, in the last 20 years is more and more demonstrate the negative influence of increased energy consumption of the environment, which leads to climate change.

The European Union has created a policy and programs for increasing the energy efficiency in domestic and industrial buildings. The energy efficiency directive 2020 aims until 2020 to achieve:

• Reduction of the greenhouse emissions to 20%
• 20% of the energy to be acquired from renewable energy sources
• Increase the energy efficiency to 20%

There were created policies about “Energy performance of buildings”, “Eco design” and “Eco label certification” of products, etc. In each EU country were introduced standards for the use of waste energy in ventilation. Even in countries such as Romania, Portugal and Greece the energy saving ventilation systems are implemented with a law mandatory in public buildings and factories. Unfortunately, in Bulgaria such laws are still not introduced. That is the reason programs like “Energy efficiency and green economy” to wait with impatience.

On 11th of September 2012 at the plenary session of The European Commission were accept new directive about energy efficiency. The new texts provide the obliged energy saving measures for buildings with floor area of 500m2 and from July 2015 for buildings with floor area of 250m2.

The mechanical ventilation with energy recuperation should be obliged. The investment in these types of systems is higher but it returns to the investor in 1.5 – 2 years. Of course the capital investment is often a priority when customers make a decision. The specialists should give information about the operational life as well. Thus, both the customer and the society will benefit:

• The popularization of programs such as “Energy efficiency and green economy” by which the small and medium enterprises will be financed.
• Both the customers and employees will receive the needed quantity of fresh air to provide high performance and health.
• Reducing the risk of illnesses and allergies.
• Reducing the energy costs from 2 to 4 times.
• Reducing the energy dependence and environmental pollution.
• Increasing the life quality and the health of the society.

As a company with 23 years of experience, what kinds of actions for increasing the energy efficiency in the ventilation and air conditioning systems will advise the customers to take?

The human can live 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water and 3 minutes without air.

The proper microclimate, temperature, humidity and fresh air are preconditions for higher performance, less diseases and therefore there is an economical aspect as well. There are a lot of measures for increasing the energy efficiency.

I will focus on the ventilation systems because of a few reasons. First – the heat pump installations are well known and advertised by famous manufacturers. Second – the energy costs for ventilation are often higher than the heating costs in the modern buildings, especially if they are well-insulated. And third – our company has more than 20 years of experience in this type of products, which are becoming well known in Europe the last few years.

It is obvious the modern buildings cannot be ventilated through open windows, thus the mechanical ventilation with energy recuperation is required. The choice of suitable units and installations can provide the shorter return of the investment and drastically decreased the customer’s costs.
TANGRA is one of the first manufacturers of heat recovery units not only in Bulgaria but also at the Balkans. Our energy saving ventilation and air conditioning units achieve higher and higher energy efficiency. At the same time we strive to keep the lowest capital investment to enable customers to quick recover their costs.

Which are the most important projects made by your company? Which is the last project TANGRA is working on? What energy efficiency measures are used?

It is difficult to mention only one or a few projects. We have a successful project, like many hotels, some of them 5-stars. The administrative and office buildings with thousands square meters floor area have installations made by TANGRA. Actually, I prefer to work on factories’ projects because in the factories Bulgarian employees are producing Bulgarian products and create the economics!

The project, which we recently finished is the bread factory SIMID. We designed and mounted a lot of energy saving installations and convert even the heat from ovens into a hot water needed for the production.

Among the biggest challenges in our history I would mention the filter systems reconstruction in NPP Kozloduy that process several million cubic meters of air per hour. The specifics of the project were that it was necessary to take into consideration the available technology while combine them with our products and last but not the least, the installations to be accepted by The European certification authorities.

The biggest project we designed was the multifunctional complex “Arco Towers” – the construction has not been started yet, but the fact is that TANGRA designed a project for a skyscraper with a floor area of 300 000 square meters. An important for this designing process was TANGRA team visit in 2008 when we travelled to Dubai during the construction of Burj Khalifa (the highest building in the world – 828 m) and we saw how are performing installations in skyscrapers and half a kilometer above the ground.

One of the current TANGRA’s projects is the implementation of ventilation and air conditioning systems in the first skyscraper in Sofia – “Capital Fort”, which will be 126 m high and its floor area is about 80 000 square meters. TANGRA will mount heat recovery ventilation systems and the heating and cooling installation will be performed through VRF systems. TANGRA will implement also air handling units with heat pump incorporated – TANGRA AHU DEX 120.

In what direction you are planning the future of TANGRA?

At the start, our major aim was the company to be popular in Bulgaria. When it happened, we try to expand our market within the Balkans. Today our current purpose is TANGRA to be well known in Europe and we have a progress with it, but there is a lot of work to do…

Dipl. Eng. July Armyanov
General Manager of “TANGRA – AV” Ltd.