Soma has a population of about 90,000 people and can be found in the Manisa province, Western Turkey
The town has grown around the lignite mining industry and the lignite-fired thermal power plant in the city. The Soma – Manisa demo site district comprises 7,037 m2of conditioned area. In general, buildings are heated by coal-based heating systems, where old-fashioned stoves heat around 70% of dwellings and only 30% of buildings are heated by central heating boilers with their own radiator systems.
Two different retrofitting strategies were implemented:
- application of passive design strategies on the building envelope in order to increase the thermal energy performance of the buildings;
- integration of active design strategies such as solar thermal collectors and monitoring systems for providing best indoor comfort conditions and energy savings