Intelligent energy use becoming

Ensuring sustainable, environmentally compatible energy supplies and, hence, a more intelligent use of energy are meanwhile regarded as key challenges of the coming decades by political and economic representatives.

While international competition has forced the industrialised countries to exploit efficiency potential, e.g. in the production sector, in recent years, potential savings in the heating of residential as well as retail and commercial buildings have so far been neglected and are therefore quite high. In both sectors, most of the energy consumed is used for space heating. In private households, heating accounts for approx. 70 percent of the total energy consumption.
Despite technological progress, both energy consumption and pollutant emissions have hardly been reduced in recent years.

CO2 reductions and energy savings are insufficient despite technological progress

The reasons for this are varied: Changing housing requirements such as the increase in square metres per person and the growing number of single households play an important role. One of the main reasons, however, is the large number of - often old - buildings whose energy consumption has not been optimised yet. These buildings still have a lot to catch up with in terms of thermal insulation and the modernisation of heating systems. Outdated heating boilers often use up to 30 percent more fuels than modern heating boilers installed in new buildings.
According to a survey conducted by the Federal Association of German Chimney-Sweeps, there are just under 2 million heating systems in Germany alone which are older than 22 years and account for the majority of private households’ CO2 emissions due to their low energy efficiency.

Existing government regulations and promotion instruments at regional and national level have so far been insufficient to achieve a sustainable reduction in CO2 emissions by private households in the EU.
The immense variety of financial promotion programmes at EU, national and community level is characterised by substantial overlaps and a clear lack of transparency. At the same time, the main challenge of promotion policies is to ensure continuity and reliability in the granting of funds. Promoting individual products, techniques or processes is only of little help.
Direct tax deductibility of products and services would make more sense. The promotion would have to be of a long-term nature to ensure sustainable building modernisation with a view to saving energy and reducing CO2 emissions.

Moreover, previous laws and regulations at EU and national level were mostly geared to stand-alone measures to achieve energy savings in buildings.
The EU Directive on the energy performance of buildings, which came into force at the end of 2002, represents the first comprehensive, cross-border regulation for increased energy efficiency in buildings and households.