Energy Advisor

Homeowners are identified as a group in society that could change their energy behaviour towards greater energy efficiency and use of non-fossil fuels. External local energy advisors, who provide knowledge, motivation and service, can influence their decisions and thereby increase energy efficiency and dissemination of non-fossil fuels. In Sweden, the energy advice system has recently been reformed and this paper investigates this reform and analyses its early effects. The aim is to analyse how energy advisors manage the reform and how they work as middle actors to increase energy efficiency and non-fossil fuel use among homeowners. We use the theoretical framework of middle actors in the middle-out perspective together with the theory of institutional logics to analyse the case of the energy advisor reform. This qualitative analysis contributes to the discussion of energy advisors by focusing on the relevance of organizational structures and logics for their possibilities to influence homeowners’ energy practices. The reform has introduced a governance and New Public Management logic that runs parallel with the former energy advice logic, guiding the advisors’ work practice. The results show that the reform potentially has increased the energy advisors’ ability to act as middle actors. However, there are organizational practices following the reform, which greatly constrain the advisors’ abilities as middle actors. One conclusion is that the advisors are in need of more guidance from the Energy Agency to be able to perform more successful work.

Closing the performance gap between the energy consumption reduction calculated at the building renovation permit stage and the real consumption after retrofit works represents a major challenge for the achievement of climate goals in Switzerland. A study by the University of Geneva in 2018 showed that on average only 42% of expected savings are achieved. Considering these disappointing results, the canton of Geneva has launched a subsidised pilot programme consisting of energy monitoring by a qualified professional (Energy advisor) throughout the entire renovation process, from planning to commissioning. After six years, it is now possible to draw relevant conclusions, with the pilot programme demonstrating its efficacy: in the renovation projects that benefited from the programme, 94% of the expected energy savings were achieved. Results show that investing in an Energy Advisor mandate to maximise energy gains and close the performance gap is highly profitable from an energy point of view, at an extremely low relative cost. However, the future of this service is not guaranteed, and there is a risk that subsidies will be cut before the habit is established of hiring energy advisors without government support.

Energy Advisor

Energy Advisor

Energy Advisor

Energy Advisor

Energy Advisor

Energy Advisor

Energy Advisor

Energy Advisor

Energy Advisor: Not Your Grandfather's Light Source

Study after study show that good lighting is not just a measure of meeting illuminance recommendations and energy codes

The traditional model of taking single actions when components reach their end of life or provide inadequate service has enabled the residential sector to gradually improve its energy efficiency over time. However, to achieve the large potential reductions in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in residential buildings, a deeper systematic approach is required. The house as a system approach to energy retrofits emphasizes that for the greatest improvements in energy performance, multiple retrofit actions must be taken, and the order is important. This was the core concept in the Canadian residential energy efficiency programs, EnerGuide for Houses (1998–2006) and ecoEnergy (2007–2012). In this study, a systematic analysis of a large dataset that documents 19,552 residential energy evaluations conducted by a single agency in Waterloo, Canada, allows for a more nuanced description of how well the energy retrofit actions taken by participants followed the house as a system approach. The findings are encouraging in that participants did respond to the multiple recommendations given to them by energy advisors. In particular, a higher number of recommendations were associated with households arranging follow-up evaluations and taking more action under the performance-based grant program. However, the results also illustrate that participants frequently did not attend to the retrofits in the combinations associated with the house as a system approach. Insulation to reduce heat losses should have been the first priority in the systemic approach, but was often not upgraded, and the extent or depth of the upgrade was often less than what had been recommended. Furnaces and windows, which should have been upgraded in combination with or after the building envelope, were often upgraded as singular actions, demonstrating the persistence of the traditional model in some households. Time-limited grants do not appear compatible with encouraging the house as a system approach; it appears that staged approaches and careful attention to the building envelope retrofits would allow these programs to promote the house as a system approach to encourage deep retrofits and achieve low-carbon housing.

Energy Advisor

Demand response and sub-metering of tenants are just two of the techniques for smarter energy management