Background

The REFURB project was set up in responce to the important Europe wide challenge of improving energy efficiency in residential buildings, and especially in uptake of major renovation of houses. The main barriers thet REFURB related to are the fragmentation of the renovation process itself. On the supply side each supplier (technology providers, contractors and architects) only delivers a fraction of the renovation work and – in general – does not take responsibility for the overall success of the renovation (i.e. the desired energy reduction level). On the demand side, the main barrier lie not only in financial restrictions to renovation or even general awareness of the potential benefits of renovation, but in the fact that private homeowners do not have a structured way to obtain all the necessary information for decisions on renovation solutions.

As response to the above challenge and main barriers, the REFURB project focused on bridging the gap between the supply side (building construction sector) and demand side (homeowners) by developing dedicated renovation packages for different market segments within the residential sector.
The overall approach was to bring together all relevant stakeholders of the supply and demand sides to a) develope a holistic methodology for the renovation process in which technology combinations trigger step-by-step deep energy renovation of existing, private residential buildings towards NZEB-standards, and b) introduce a “Compelling Offer” (i.e. an offer you can’t refuse) to residential homeowners based on a match between available technologies and their concerns.

Following this approach, a set of activities focused on:
• Understanding the demand and supply side drivers;
• Understanding the different dynamics of various market segments;
• The development of a robust and compelling offer;
• Wide-spread rollout and transferability.