The European Union has committed itself to increase energy efficiency with 20% up to the year 2020. A main instrument for reaching this target in the residential sector is the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). This European directive proposes, among others, the introduction of energy performance labels for dwellings in all European Member States. Such an energy performance label would have to be handed over when a dwelling is build, reconstructed, sold or rented out. This label shows the current energy performance status of the dwelling divided over energy efficiency classes A to G. In most Member States, this label comes with a tailor-made advice for dwelling improvement measures that would reduce energy use.

In countries that have already implemented the directive for a while, the energy label hardly seems to motivate people to improve the energy performance of their dwelling. At the same time, however, improving the dwelling based on the label and the advise can save the new owner large amounts of money in the long term.

IDEAL-EPBD will investigate why the response of households towards the energy label is limited so far:

• What are the reasons (or barriers) for dwelling owners to take the energy label into account or not?
• What are the reasons for dwelling owners to take the additional proposed measures or not?

THE HOME COMFORT SURVEY

BRE are currently carrying out a survey of homeowners. The purpose of the survey is to discover more about the level of comfort experienced by households in England.

Only those households that received a letter from us should complete the questionnaire. If you received a letter from us asking if you would take part in the research please click the following link to complete the questionnaire: www.ideal-epbd.eu/survey and type in your access code.

IDEAL-EPBD is a project co-funded by the European Union under the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme. The project is running from October 1, 2008 until October 1, 2011 and has project partners in 10 EU countries.

More information on the objectives and activities of IDEAL-EPBD can be found here.