Whilst residential energy consumption in France and Italy is either stable or is decreasing, this is not the case in other MED region countries and is not the case in social housing through the MED region. The introduction of energy certification and labelling of existing buildings and smart meters represents a change in the perception of energy by users and offers an opportunity for proactive changes in habits if well addressed and a threat if the changes are not well accepted and lead to negative reactions. The aim of the project is to demonstrate how EMPOWERMENT of users by providing relevant, meaningful and near real time information, advice and suggestions is the key to achieving higher energy performance in residential buildings when combined with integral refurbishment, use of renewable energy sources and ICT. The idea is that improvements will only be achieved if the people living in these homes become proactive in their use of energy. If they do then there is scope for social benefit in terms of reduced fuel poverty and improved quality of life economic benefit in terms of retention of resources in the local economy (otherwise spent on fuel) and development of energy related services and environmental benefit in terms of reduced pollution and energy dependency. These issues are being addressed at a strategic level by MED projects such as MARIE and ELIH MED. The project aims to provide practical applications of the innovative results of recent ICT related R&D and demonstration projects and to link these to the changes that are going to affect building users most in the next few years: energy certification/labelling and the introduction of smart meters. This is relevant as it is an issue with considerable scope for MED region development in line with EU energy, environmental and social policies in general and with 3 of the 5 possible actions listed for objective 2.2 of this call, namely: - Using results of research and promoting pilot projects to develop processes improving energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption - The project will use state of the art ICT applied to residential building energy management. - Innovations in the field of standards (construction, housing, transport...) supporting the harmonisation of standards and the respect of international directives in terms of energy saving, efficiency and consumption - the project will work to harmonise the application of energy certification in existing buildings across the med region. - Disseminating information and raising awareness of the civil society with regards to the use of innovative technologies in the field of energy - the project will disseminate the results and the concepts to a wide and relevant audience. The project involves direct intervention in three pilot projects in France, Italy and Spain and the results will be analysed and disseminated widely in the MED region. Achievements: The Encerticus project finishes with success results and achieve main objectives set up at the beginning of the project. The focus lies in the provision of an impact analysis of the ICT solutions that have been developed and operated by the participating pilot sites. These solutions were focused on User Awareness Services (UAS) and Management Services (MS). The analysis revealed that the achievement of savings is also depending on the initial situation of the pilot sites. When tenants already consumed very few energy/resources during the baseline period, the potential for the achievement of savings is very low. This applies, for example, to the experimental group of Manresa where it was very difficult to achieve further savings. That’s why it can be interpreted as very successful if experimental groups performed better, although they had lower baseline consumption than the control group. Furthermore, for social housing tenants it is especially very difficult to achieve meaningful savings as their incomes are very low and they have only limited capital to replace old electrical appliances by energy efficient ones which would have a bigger impact on consumption.The question is now answered. Read the full report: http://med-encerticus.eu/it/outputs/outputs-1.aspENCERTtool Go life versionDeveloped by the University of Cadiz and coordinated by the Grupo de Termotecnia of the University of Seville, this innovative tool aims to help building managers and professionals to compare simulated and measured energy consumptions, to assess building energy performance taking into account the user behavior and its influence on the energy consumption, and finally to identify the possible reasons of a poor energy performance.In the framework of the ENCERTICUS project, this tool has been tested with the data and results from the Spanish pilots.ENCERTtool have been translated into the following languages: English, Spanish, Catalan, French and Italian.One auxiliary tool for the assessment of shadows and related user guidelines and technical fundamentals have been developed and are available for download on the Encerticus website:- ENCERTtool software Version 1.0 - ENCERTtool Shadows Calculation Tool Version 1.1 - ENCERTtool Technical Fundamentals- ENCERTtool Shadows Technical FundamentalsFor more info, please see: http://www.med-encerticus.eu/it/energy-certification-in-social-housing/encerticus-software.aspPilots leaflets available nowPlease download leaflet of each pilot site here: http://www.med-encerticus.eu/it/pilots-leaflets/pilots-leaflets.asp