In Hungary, the housing stock is extremely outdated, so it is not surprising that our homes are energy wasters: the average energy-rating apartment consumes two to two and a half times as much energy as a modern energy-efficient property, while, for example, Kádár cubes consume 4-5 times as much. Are Hungarians delaying the energy renovation of their homes just because of a lack of money, or is a lack of information also playing a role? How has the first Hungarian one-stop-shop service, RenoPont, which provides comprehensive technical, legal and financial advice to renovators free of charge, helped to overcome this lack of information? What similar initiatives exist abroad? These were the themes of the final conference of the EU-funded RenoHUb project.

Experts from the project, which was implemented by five Hungarian professional organisations, emphasized at the event that the RenoHUb project will come to an end in May, but the network of RenoPont consultancy offices and the RenoPont website, which is extremely informative for renovators, will live on.

Daniela Bachner, of the European Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Executive Agency (CINEA), which has funded the project so far, explained that 35 million homes across the EU should be renovated by 2030, and that this should include deep renovation, including windows, insulation and upgrading heating and cooling systems. Most of the time, the reasons for not renovating are money, time and lack of knowledge.

Gergely Schum, an expert from the Energy Club, said that exceeding plans not two but eight RenoPont renovation consultancy offices opened in the country during the three years of the project. The offices were launched in a headwind due to the overhead reduction, but since last summer there has been a spectacular increase in interest in ways to cut energy costs: a total of 74,000 people have visited the website and the offices have advised more than 200 people. The office network will continue to be run by one of the consortium partners, the Hungarian Energy Efficiency Institute (MEHI), after the project closes and will continue to provide free advice to interested parties.

Ilona Szécsi of MEHI presented a calculator available on the RenoPont website to calculate the energy savings that can be achieved by different renovation measures. Her presentation also showed that different types of offices were tested in the project: two offices are provided by municipalities, but EU funding is used to pay the consultants’ salaries, while other municipalities provide the staff as well as the premises. Some municipalities outsource the consultancy to an energy consultant, and there are two offices run by companies (MCSTE, IMRO). He also described the RenoPont professionals’ database, which offers renovators a choice of pre-qualified, reliable contractors.

“It’s important that homeowners stop looking to others for solutions and become more aware.” – stressed István Gulyás, President of the Hungarian Family House Owners Association. According to him, thoughtlessness can thwart even the best calculations: some of his clients have installed heat pumps in the wake of the energy crisis, only to be shocked by the increased electricity bills due to the lack of insulation.

Dr. Fanni Sáfián-Farkas, MEHI research fellow, presented the research carried out in the RenoHUb project, which showed that property value research can increase the value of a property by up to 50% as a result of a deep renovation.

Benigna Boza-Kiss, researcher at IIASA, explained that it is much more difficult to motivate homeowners to renovate for energy efficiency than to target those who are already motivated and provide them with information to renovate in a more planned way. In his presentation, he presented advisory services abroad that also help social rented housing renovation, such as Energy Communities Tipperary in Ireland and Pass Renovation in Hauts-de-France.

The banking sector roundtable also discussed aspects such as how to combine retail loan products with subsidies, or the need for financial institutions to involve external experts in renovation loans, as they do not have energy or technical staff, so cross-sector cooperation is essential. Innovative financing methods that already exist elsewhere, such as on-bill financing, where the energy supplier participates in the financing of the energy renovation and the customer repays the debt to the supplier through the utility bills, were also mentioned. This option currently faces legal obstacles in our country.

The conference participants agreed that it is necessary to continue to dispel misconceptions and educate both renovators and professionals, and that it is essential to maintain and expand the advisory network.

Watch the introductory video of the project, in which the participating Hungarian organisations also speak, and the short animation of the project! Find out more about the RenoPont service in this video.