CEES Partners piloted various ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ measures to improve people’s thermal comfort and/or reduce excessive energy use and the burden of high energy bills.
The quality of homes, apartment buildings or other types of dwellings has the largest effect on the energy needed to support the health and well-being of occupants.
Across Europe, a high share of old, poor-quality homes is one of the biggest drivers of energy poverty. But personal habits and energy prices also play key roles. For this reason, energy solidarity actions need to balance two approaches:
- Soft measures focus on helping energy-poor households optimise energy consumption; they typically involve low- or no-cost actions, such as behavioural advice or switching to LED lighting.
- Hard measures – such as energy efficiency renovations – are the primary way to reduce energy demand, as well as energy bills, over the long term. Such interventions are often costly and disruptive, they can be difficult to implement.
Energy communities (ECs) keen to implement energy solidarity measures should be aware of two fundamental factors. The degree to which such measures are disruptive to the daily lives of people in situations of energy vulnerability and the level of resilience (i.e. capacity to cope with disruption) that a particular household exhibits. Often, starting with soft measures can provide some degree of improvement, which can enhance trust and boost resilience, paving the way to pursue hard measures at a later date.
Boosting energy knowledge and know-how
CEES considers that across all actions, a basic aim of ECs should be to boost people’s understanding of energy broadly (i.e. their energy knowledge) and how to use it more wisely (i.e. their energy know-how). The former can help them feel more informed about how energy systems work and who makes high-level decisions. The latter aims to equip them with skills to make smarter decisions about their own energy use. Both are part of what many organisations refer to more broadly as ‘energy literacy’.
| Energy knowledge focuses on understanding factual information | Energy know-how aims to help people use energy wisely |
| Topics might include: – Types of energy sources used in local or national systems – CO2 emissions linked to the production and use of different sources – How energy production and use are linked to climate change – How local or national policies influence things such as which sources feed which systems, how energy is priced – General information about home energy consumption, including energy saving tips | Practical skills might include: – Programming timers on heating/cooling devices and power bars – Checking for draughts around windows and doors, then blocking leaks with weather-stripping – Inserting a chimney balloon to keep warm air from being drawn out of rooms – Using curtains and blinds to slash heat loss in winter or heat gain in summer – Checking insulation in attics – Using appliances and electronic devices more wisely to minimise ‘stand-by’ electricity consumption |
Check out previously produced blogs for deeper analysis of aspects of energy literacy carried out by the University of Birmingham.