Energy awareness services - scientifi c background and European best practices

In order to fi ght climate change, all potentials for lowering energy consumption have to be exploited. Tackling global warming is not only a technological problem - replacing conventional energy sources by renewable energy sources and promoting energy effi ciency in traffi c, industries and buildings – but also a problem of human behaviour. Human behaviour consists to a considerable degree of day-to-day routines and social practices which are not favourable to a sustainable use of energy. Th e Beware project 1 , co-funded by the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation EACI, aims at providing residents and housing companies with “energy awareness services” enabling them to reduce the household-related energy consumption. Th us, in collaboration with housing associations and other relevant stakeholders of the housing sector the project consortium systematically gathers, evaluates and disseminates energy awareness services. In this paper we will fi rst provide a statistical overview on household energy consumption and the behaviour-related energy saving potential in the EU member states. Subsequently we will discuss prominent studies on strategies to infl uence residents. We will distinguish two meta categories as suggested