Challenge

Social housing represents an important opportunity for reducing Europe’s energy consumption and emissions, but tenants and housing providers often lack clear, timely information about how much energy a building uses and where avoidable losses occur. Residents may have little control over shared heating systems, while housing organisations need reliable data to identify inefficient equipment and prioritise improvements.

Cost and accessibility are also central concerns. Energy-saving services must be simple enough for tenants with different levels of digital confidence, while delivering lasting reductions without placing additional financial pressure on households already vulnerable to energy poverty.

Solutions

eSESH introduced two complementary types of ICT-supported services:

1. Energy Awareness Services gave tenants understandable feedback on their heating, electricity and water use through online platforms, including comparisons with previous periods or similar households, consumption forecasts and personalised saving tips;
2. Energy Management Services enabled housing providers to monitor buildings, identify faults and optimise heating, power generation and energy distribution.

The services were tested at ten pilot sites in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, reaching more than 5,000 social housing tenants. Each pilot analysed local requirements, tested prototypes, trained housing staff and established baseline consumption data before operating the services for at least twelve months. We coordinated the project and its common evaluation approach.

Results

The pilots demonstrated that ICT-based energy services could be adapted to different buildings, infrastructures and local housing arrangements. Energy Management Services were particularly effective for identifying immediate operational improvements, while Energy Awareness Services supported longer-term changes in tenants’ consumption behaviour. The solutions also helped reduce infrastructure-maintenance costs and the waste of energy and other resources.

The project highlighted that technology alone is not enough: advice from trusted housing staff or other intermediaries is important for tenant participation, and automated energy management can be especially valuable where residents do not directly control or pay their energy bills. eSESH translated these lessons into recommendations and a replication guide for housing providers and public authorities seeking to introduce similar services elsewhere.