Evaluation of on-site energy consultancy provided by the consumer advice centre for North Rhine-Westphalia (VZ NRW)

© Andrey Popov / Fotolia

The consumer advice centre in North Rhine-Westphalia viewed the energy consultancy about climate protection and the energy transition (KEK) as an advisory and informative campaign on the issues of energy saving, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. A key element of the project was the EZH scheme, an approximately 90-minute consultation about energy-related modernisation offered in the customer’s home, primarily in relation to the building envelope and heating. In addition to the EZH, the KEK project included other specialised versions of the initial on-site consultation for problems which had escalated, e.g. damp, user behaviour, and the solar power check.

ifeu and TNS Emnid were jointly commissioned to evaluate the energy advisory service provided during the KEK project, which investigated specific issues relating to climate change and the energy transition. The primary aim of the evaluation was to calculate the effectiveness of the EZH scheme.

The core elements of the evaluation were surveys of those consulted about EZH and damp in the summer of 2014. The interviews were carried out by TNS Emnid. The data analysis was undertaken by ifeu. On the basis of the information supplied by the respondents, energy and CO₂ savings and investments were calculated with the help of the ifeu building model GEMOD.

The evaluation showed that the on-site energy consultancy service provided by the consumer advice centre in North Rhine-Westphalia had a direct positive impact on the energy savings achieved, and on the associated reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The average savings effects per consultation were slightly lower in comparison to previous evaluations of comparable energy consultancy services. Many other energy consultancy functions grew in importance as a result (decision-making, optimisation of measures, quality, prevention).