EFFECT4buildings project Toolbox for energy efficiency in buildings

EFFECT4buildings project has published a toolbox with financial tools and instruments

Building manager is the key person in launching and completion of the entire energy efficiency project including maintenance.

That person knows the building, communicates with the client, and schedules the repair works for the building. Manager is a specialist in multiple areas but needs good tools and accessories to simplify his or her work and enhance performance. Often, they have initial knowledge of various instruments, but lack operational experience and special knowledge in energy performance. That was the bottleneck solved in EFFECT4Buildings project.

The activities of EFFECT4Buildings project resulted in putting together a "toolbox" to help the manager in solving various bottlenecks encountered during the execution of energy effi ciency project. Toolbox has its own guides that explains how and when to use different tools and how to combine them. The summary provides initial brief overview of the first things to consider and methods to use to achieve energy efficiency of a building without taking excessive financial risks.

In general, there are three groups of tools:

• Supportive tools, which are useful and help to produce desired results. This includes e.g. instructions of how to convince the decision-maker and obtain positive renovation decision, tool for financial calculations that shows how to calculate and present financial impact of the project, how to bundle different measures and to make it financially attractive, overview of funding instruments and schemes (containing both domestic and cross-European financial sources). The tools in the package can be successfully used in various projects separately.
• Financial instruments include an improved implementation model for Energy performance contracting (EPC) with tender criterias, contract templates and step-by-step guidelines. With Multi service contracting, additional benefi ts to energy savings can be reached such as improved indoor climate. Other instruments are Guides for Green lease contracting and a thorough overview how to become prosumer i.e. how to produce and consume electricity in the same time.
• Technology solutions tool helps to navigate among various technological solutions available on the market. During project activities, various solutions and common practices were mapped. As an example, we carried out a pilot for energy monitoring by using control of technical building systems in and 24/7 diagnostics of a smart building. The results were excellent - AI (artificial intelligence) was significantly quicker and more accurate in detecting problems than an ordinary operator.

During the project, partners shared their experience, which made it possible to develop the existing financial instruments and improve their usability as well as find bottlenecks in different markets. Instruments were all practically usable and validated by several cases in participating countries.

All tools are very practical and ready for immediate use. The tools provide a practical guide as an overview and are supplemented with concrete tool elements such as guidelines, templates, contracts, training material, recommendations etc.