€CO2 Management

A significant amount of the Austrian greenhouse gas emissions is caused by energy consumption in private households. In the action plan on energy efficiency the European Union has set the target of reducing private energy consumption by 20 per cent by 2020.

In the first subproject, a new device to collect, display, and transmit energy data on the household level based on an already existing digital electricity meter has been developed. Then the developed technical solution was tested in a one-year field test covering 280 households in three different regions. The test households were not only testing the opportunities offered by ongoing energy monitoring but were also offered to avail themselves of consulting services. Moreover, a micro emission-trading scheme was simulated for the test households during the trial period.

In the third and final phase we analyse the actual energy savings in the testing phase, socio-economic effects and consequences – ie privacy and data protection –, the user friendliness of the equipment used, the possible effects on user behaviour and the individual motives and reasons for energy-related behaviour. We recommend that the collected know-how should be reflected in the future development of the equipment.