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22 steps (and counting) to reduce your carbon footprint
To become energy conscious can be quite a journey - let us be your guide!
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Improve your household's energy efficiency
It will greatly benefit your comfort and wellbeing
Don't you want to be warm and comfortable at home watching your favourite show when it's cold outside ?
Act now
Explore the actions you can take
- Produce your own energy
- Manage your energy consumption
- Improve your home
- Become a smart consumer
- Sustain efficient energy use
SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS
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Duration
24 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
The term “photovoltaic” consists of two parts: the Greek word phos (genitive photos) meaning “light,” and “volt,” the unit of electromotive force (named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery). Photovoltaic can therefore be “translated” as “transforming light into electricity.” Proceed with this action topic to learn more about the solar photovoltaic technology that allows you to take advantage of the sunlight and use it to supply your home with electricity.
SOLAR WATER HEATING SYSTEMS
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Duration
25 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
Have you ever tried to heat up water by placing a vessel filled with water under the shining sun for a few hours? Actually, you can ensure a stable hot water supply for your household by harnessing the sun energy. You can do this by installing a solar water heating system. Learn more about the opportunities the solar water heating provides to households by proceeding with this section.
MICRO COMBINED HEAT AND POWER SYSTEMS
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Duration
13 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
Many people have never heard of a Micro combined heat and power (micro CHP) technology, and even among those who have, there is often confusion as to what it is and how it works. Proceed with this session to learn about the main components of the system, its benefits, main types, sizing and cost of installation.
ENERGY STORAGE AND HYBRID RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS
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Duration
14 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
In this session you will learn about the concepts of hybrid systems and energy storage that can provide a stable energy supply for your home. You will also learn about the concepts of self-sufficiency rate and self-consumption rate.
ONSITE ENERGY GENERATION
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Duration
20 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
This Action topic provides general information on generating your own energy at home. Learn about the benefits of producing energy at your home and about the most popular technological solutions for self-generation of energy from renewable sources.
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDELINES
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Duration
11 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
Maybe you have thought of self-generating energy at home, but you have always dismissed it since you considered it as too complicated or too expensive? Or maybe you just did not know where to start? We invite you to proceed with this session to learn more about the issues you need to consider before, during and after the installation of three popular energy self-generation systems – a solar water heating system, a solar photovoltaic system and a micro combined heat and power system.
UNDERSTAND MY ENERGY BILLS
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Duration
10 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
Knowing exactly how to decode your energy bills helps you build your armor against high energy bills and help you take the first steps towards saving money and the environment.
THE POWER OF HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES
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Duration
15 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
This session helps you understand which appliances contribute to your electricity bill, from brewing your first cup of coffee in the morning until switching off the lights just before a good night’s sleep.
RHYTHMS & ROUTINES
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Duration
15 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
This session increases your awareness of the social rhythms within which energy consumption take place in the context of time – days, weeks, months, and years.
IMPROVE YOUR HOME INSULATION
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Duration
20 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
In this session you’ll be able to measure the effectiveness of insulation materials, their strength and weaknesses in order to be able to choose between different options. And you’ll learn all the areas where you can add insulation in your home in order to make your home energy efficient. So if you wish to make a big energy use cut, you should go for it.
CHANGE OR UPGRADE YOUR WINDOWS
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Duration
10 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
Aside from protecting you from bugs, your windows are an important aspect of energy efficient homes. So if they're not performing at their best, it's time you take action on this one.
IMPROVE YOUR HEATING, VENTILATION AND COOLING SYSTEM
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Duration
20 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
As much as half of the energy used in your home goes to heating and cooling. So making smart decisions about your home's heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system can have a big effect on your utility bills and your comfort.
CHOOSING A NEW BOILER
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Duration
15 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
Get some useful insight on the aspects that matter when choosing a new boiler for your house
WHAT MAKES AN ENERGY CONSUMER "SMART"?
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Duration
5 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
Start to consume energy smartly to avoid wasting it. Discover in this session what we mean by "smartly"?
LEARN HOW TO USE YOUR THERMOSTAT
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Duration
20 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
Your thermostat is the tool to control your heating and cooling equipment. If you know how to use it correctly, you can reduce energy waste while improving your comfort.
LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR HYDRONIC HEATING SYSTEM
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Duration
15 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
This action presents some advanced options for controlling your hydronic heating system to achieve comfort with increased energy efficiency
1 - SIDE-EFFECTS OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY
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Duration
10 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
You can implement one or more energy efficiency measures but if you don´t change your behaviours, your energy consumption can remain the same or even increase. Some inefficient or less efficient behaviours can prevail and prevent you from getting the expected savings.
2 - TAKING A STEP FURTHER ON ENERGY EFFICIENCY
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Duration
5 min
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Cost
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Difficulty
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Impact
Find out how to maintain the savings achieved from energy efficiency measures and how to avoid waste of energy. Use only the energy you need, not a tiny bit more!
You're on the right path!
Becoming energy conscious is a journey, and we'll help you achieve that with an easy, trusted and convenient learning path.
ACT4ECO – Learn about energy conscious consumption
ACT4ECO will also guide you in taking all the right actions to become energy efficient.
Discover
Recent news & articles
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ACT4ECO Policy Papers on Energy Efficiency
Are you interested in knowing the main results stemming from the cycle of national and EU-level seminars organised in the context of ECO2 project? Then, you will be glad to know that the Consortium summarised the most important conclusions in a set of policy briefs. The first step consisted in organising a set of national-level … Continued
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Creating sustainability-oriented solutions to reduce energy use in the home
At the beginning of June, Strategic Design Scenarios, the Belgian partner of the ECO2 project, organized the ACT4ECO Design Jam with the aim of coming up with innovative and sustainability-oriented solutions to reduce energy consumption in the home. The workshop focused on 5 main design challenges which were clusters of 176 user quotes collected during … Continued
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Dear ACT4ECO User, we'd like to hear your voice!
By now, many of you have already used ACT4ECO at least once. If not…it’s never to late! Just browse through the Actions and choose the ones that sound more interesting to you. You can either create a profile or explore the content without subscribing. If you are a full-fledged User, we would like to hear … Continued
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