Existing buildings – Users, renovations and energy policy

• Renovating existing detached housing has more potential than building new low-energy housing.
• House owners are more motivated by aesthetics and home-making projects than by energy economy.
• Until now policy has mainly focused on rational economic reasons for energy renovating.
• Policy have thus failed to acknowledge other significant determinants for making decisions on renovation.

This paper deals with the energy consumption of existing owner-occupied detached houses and the question of how they can be energy renovated. Data on the age of the Danish housing stock, and its energy consumption is presented. Research on the potential for energy reductions in the Danish housing sector is discussed, and it is shown that there is a huge potential for reductions. It is a well-known problem that even if there are relevant technical means and even if it is economically feasible, the majority of house owners do not energy renovate their homes. This paper intends to address what can be done to solve this problem. The paper draws on different sources of why, when, and how, people do not energy renovate their homes. These results are then compared and discussed together with a presentation and discussion of the Danish policy measures aimed at encouraging people to energy renovate their homes. These policy measures include building regulations, energy tax and different types of incentives and information dissemination. The conclusion calls for new and innovative policy measures to cope with the realities of renovations of owner-occupied houses and how energy efficiency improvement could be part of that.