All this is not sufficient: it is necessary to involve consumers in a direct and aware way. Citizens are aware that the improvement of Energy efficiency of their houses is a clear, straightforward and immediate answer to energy and environment problems.
However, although they are very aware and sensitive towards this matter, they do not know how to act in practice: unfortunately noumerous not technologic barriers obstruct investments in this field.
The first barrier concerns the lack of information targeting the public. Citizens, especially families, are not fully aware of the interventions that need to be done to improve the energy efficiency of their houses or of the technologies that can be usefully utilized. They find it hard to get in touch with clear, correct and independent information on the interventions that need to be done so as to save energy.
The second barrier concerns the professional level of designers and fitters of energy systems. A weak habit to a constant training and updating activity for the operators implies a limited use of new energy technologies, which, on the contrary, require a big effort in terms of knowledge and a qualified after selling assistance.
The last obstacle concerns the lack of clear points of reference where citizens could address to receive advice from independent and expert energy manager and useful energy diagnosis of their houses.
All these barriers prevent most of the citizens from receving appropriate advice on energy and environment benefits deriving from the use of the different technologic options that are available. Unfortunately, the energy interventions that are usually suggested that consumers should do consist in systems that simply require the fitting of a single equipment. Generally, there is a lack of integration between the different equipments and with the building or fitting system.
On the contrary, there is a wide possibility to improve energy efficiency in the buildings: it would be sufficient to use the available technologies, in order to obtain an important saving and pay off the cost of the investment in a few years.
Nowadays it is no longer sufficient to spread the culture of energy efficiency towards consumers. It is essential to offer citizens qualified Energy Diagnosis that are independent from the companies’ commercial interests, so as to identify the most appropriate and advantageous interventions aiming at upgrading their houses from the energy point of view.
It is necessary that professionals carrying out the Energy Diagnosis do not have commercial interests with the companies which will then carry out the buildings’ upgrading, in order o erase any possible doubt on the fact the energy interventions that are propsed to consumers could be the result of an actual will to offer the best solutions instead of being simply generated by the greed of making profit.
