« Save Energy now »

The conference entitled “Save Energy Now” will be held on Tuesday 16-17 April 2013 at the Chalet Robinson in Brussels.

Citizens and households are responsible for a large share of global energy and electricity consumption and the related greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Residential energy demand is also rapidly increasing, due to a higher degree of basic comfort and level of amenities: larger homes, new services and new appliances and equipment, which is putting a strain on the economies and energy infrastructures.

Energy efficiency improvements in residential appliances, heating and cooling equipment, ICT equipment and lighting can play a key role in achieving a sustainable energy future and socio-economic development, and at the same time mitigate climate change. Energy efficiency measures related to residential appliances, heating equipment and lighting are in most cases highly cost-effective CO2 emission reduction actions, and offer good opportunity to increase the security and reliability of energy supply.

Large energy savings and carbon reduction can only be achieved with a paradigmatic change in consumer behaviour in the context of usage patterns of energy using products. These changes must be aided by “smart” product design providing automatic optimisation of energy and water resource usage for a given task and providing readily accessible feedback to the consumer to catalyse optimum usage patterns.

In addition, smart appliances and equipment, smart meters and communication protocols, allow households to be a key part of the smart grids, with storage, load flexibility and generation capabilities through renewable energies and demand response and system energy savings.

Within this context, the EU funded project PROMISE, seeks to promote energy savings and awareness among households situated on some of Europe's most beautiful, and remote, islands.

By sharing information and experience, energy agencies from Samsø (Denmark), Iceland, Rhodes (Greece) and Tenerife (Spain) aim to promote tried-and-tested methods for reducing the energy consumption of households.
After 18 months of project duration significant results have been achieved in the project islands:

• Home energy checks have been performed bringing peculiarities to light that are related to the islands’ specific geographic and climatic contexts.
• Web-based energy efficiency calculators, supporting energy efficient behaviour and decision-making (e.g. interactive cash flow diagrams for investments in electricity saving appliances as e.g. solar heater, heat pump, wind turbine and roof isolation).
• Initiation of awareness raising campaigns, aimed at motivating the island households to adopt energy efficient behaviour and save energy in their homes. Each awareness campaign contains several action lines which are tailored to the different islands.

The Conference aims at spreading knowledge and experiences on how to reduce the energy consumption of households with the ultimate goal to replicate the lessons learnt in further islands.