Authors: Herbert Tretter (Austrian Energy Agency); Altan Sahin (Austrian Energy Agency).

(Note: opinions in the articles are of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the EU).

Introduction

The motivation for launching the REPLACE project in 2019 was the heating and cooling sector’s high final energy consumption and its high dependence on fossil fuels within the European Union. At that time, heating and cooling accounted for around 50% of the European final energy consumption (1), which is still the case in relative terms. Moreover, in the residential sector, heating and cooling (H&C) and hot water together accounted for about 80 % of total energy use (2). Two thirds of this energy came from fossil fuels. Furthermore, in 2019, 58 % of all boilers installed in the EU-27 were inefficient non-condensing oil and gas boilers, amounting to 61 million units. (3) 

Changes in this sector were essential to meet climate targets and to make Europe independent of oil, coal and gas. Russia’s war against Ukraine, which started in February 2022, and the energy crises that Russia had already triggered in mid-2022 (by significantly reducing gas deliveries to Europe), show the urgency of the clean heat transition. The transition to renewable energy is essential not only to mitigate climate change, but also to secure the supply of our vital energy needs and for the welfare and well-being of our societies.

The overarching goal of the European Horizon 2020 project REPLACE was to make heating and cooling for European consumers efficient, economically resilient, clean and climate friendly. REPLACE therefore aimed to boost the phase-out of old fossil fuelled and inefficient (e.g., log wood and direct electricity) residential in-house boiler and stove heating systems by targeting consumers, investors, and owners as well as intermediaries and to help them make informed decisions.

The REPLACE Project

Over the course of three years, the REPLACE project worked towards motivating and assisting over 8 million citizens in nine pilot regions across eight European countries to transition from fossil fuel-based or inefficient heating systems to modern, comfortable, and clean alternatives. 

To implement this ambitious plan, the REPLACE project used a unique approach to bring together installers, manufacturing industry (as supportive co-enablers), local authorities, regional policy makers and other key players at the regional level in each target region. The role of these Local Working Groups was to design and implement effective, tailor-made measures to support the clean heat transition in the pilot region. Efforts to improve the local enabling environment and to introduce simple behavioural or low-cost energy saving or renovation measures that reduce overall energy consumption were also part of the action. 

The in-house boiler and stove heating replacement campaigns were implemented in each of the nine target regions to promote the phase-out of fossil fuels in the heating market. In addition, the project developed several tools to help households make informed decisions about which renewable heating system was best for their home. These include a heating matrix, a heating calculator and manuals for both consumers and professionals. This form of support was not previously available in the Eastern European partner countries and was made possible for the first time through REPLACE.

Supporting end consumers jointly and locally – through Local Working Groups 

REPLACE facilitated a regionally focused, hands-on approach in order to support the clean heat transition. The diffusion of Heat from Renewable Energy Sources (RES-H) technologies depends to a great extent on local availability of information, and local development of projects based on a detailed knowledge of local circumstances, communication flows, influential persons etc. 

In practice, this was done by strengthening supra-regional and supra-national programme management and networking. The aim of REPLACE was to learn from each other and particularly from pioneers, so that less developed regions could avoid making the same mistakes and instead focus their efforts on activities that have proved effective elsewhere. Through REPLACE one of the outcomes is the identification of successful activities and the reasons for their success in specific regions. Consequently, REPLACE can impart the lessons learned beyond the project’s lifespan to facilitate the adoption of measures that promote the transition to clean heating in your region. 

Prior to the fieldwork, comprehensive analyses were made of the status quo in the participating regions from a legal, administrative, political and socio-economic perspective, including experiences, stakeholder attitudes and best practices.

The core activity of REPLACE in the field was to develop, embed (by adapting/strengthening existing policy programs/measures) and implement nine Renewable Heating and Cooling (RHC) equipment replacement campaigns adjusted for local conditions. Meeting the needs of the social and political framework was achieved by a strong involvement of the Local Working Group (LWG) and further local key stakeholders in their design and implementation as depicted Figure 1.

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Figure 1: Schematic illustration of the concept of Local Workings Groups in REPLACE (source: Austrian Energy Agency)

Rather than focusing on policy makers and consumers only, the REPLACE concept uniquely encouraged new types of collaboration of the key actors and intermediaries in terms of the replacement campaigns and marketing activities. 

More concretely establishing Local Working Groups meant bringing together all relevant actors for the clean heat transition (e.g. local and regional authorities, local organisations, installers, manufacturers, etc.), both for planning and implementation at the local level, and for providing feedback to optimise the regional and national framework conditions towards an enabling environment.

The project was acting in the nine pilot regions Salzburg in Austria, Rhodope municipalities in Bulgaria, Canton of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, North-West Croatia and Primorsko goranska County in Croatia, Bavarian Oberland in Germany, Skopje region in North Macedonia, Slovenia and Castilla y Leon in Spain. 

In collaboration with the Local Working Groups, REPLACE developed tailor-made residential boiler and stove heating system replacement campaigns that have been rolled out starting in the heating season 2021 to March 2023. Due to different local conditions, REPLACE together with the LWG provided a communication framework and a toolbox of a wide set of online and offline actions targeted to their needs, pursuing policy and business-related improvements. The replacement campaigns involved a range of activities that were successfully carried out, resulting in increased awareness of sustainable energy options and a high adoption rate of renewable heating systems.

During the boiler and stove heating system replacement campaigns, the project partners and Local Working Group members had to adapt to changing conditions. This began with COVID-19 and price increases from mid-2020 due to the Russian war against Ukraine and energy price crises. Mitigating heat market distortions and supply uncertainties have become serious issues that REPLACE has had to address. 

However, experience has shown that there is no one-fits-all solution or strategy for the replacement of fossil or inefficient heating systems that can be implemented in a variety of national settings. It is crucial to respond to the general conditions on site and the situation of the residents.

More information on our campaign activities is available in the REPLACE report Deliverable 6.2 ‘Overview of boiler & stove replacement activities and campaigns in nine pilot regions’. All project reports can be found at the following link.

During the last heating season, the project team discovered that unforeseen market distortions, such as the supply shortage of natural gas and fuel oil can lead to escalating energy prices and inflation, resulting in widespread insecurity and decreased affordability and financing capabilities for fuel switching. To mitigate the pressure faced by households, the project team recommended non-regret, low-cost, or easy-to-finance measures.

REPLACE has therefore compiled a list of behavioural or minor investment measures that have the potential to immediately achieve the indicated percentage reductions in the total cost of space heating and hot water supply.

The REPLACE toolbox to enable informed decisions in practice

Enabling informed choices is key to giving the end user confidence in the choices they make in relation to the refurbishment of their home, both in terms of the heating and/or cooling system and the thermal refurbishment of the building envelope. Ideally, the overall energy efficiency of the house is the first priority. 

The aim of providing a general REPLACE toolbox for decision-makers was to design and develop tools that assist consumers, installers and investors in selecting the most appropriate heating systems when replacement is needed. Great attention has been given to ensure that the tools and materials described in more detail below are comprehensive, of high quality, targeted and well adapted to the different regions, including availability in local languages. 

Such tools and information materials did not previously exist in the South-Eastern European partner countries, and for many of these the project partners were able to make them available to the population in the local language for the first time.

The REPLACE Heating Matrices provide an initial overview of which heating system is most suitable for a home, adapted for each of the nine pilot regions. It provides a manufacturer-independent initial assessment of technology options for a heating system replacement. 

Based on an existing Austrian matrix, developed within the Austrian klimaaktiv programme (4), each of the nine pilot regions has adapted such a matrix for both single- and two-family houses as well as large volume residential buildings, which are available on the project website. 

The matrix (see Figure 2 below) shows which heating systems (rows) are best suited to different building types and qualities in terms of comfort, investment, and CO2 emissions, based on the heat demand from the building's Energy Performance Certificate (columns). 

In more detail, the rows show the different renewable energy based heating systems available in the pilot regions for residential single and two-family houses. The columns show different building energy classes (in terms of energy consumption per m²). The building energy classes are energy-efficient starting from the left and become increasingly inefficient towards the right. The appropriateness of the renewable energy based heating systems related to the energy consumption level of the house is categorised by using a traffic light system from dark green (highly recommended) to red (not recommended).

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Figure 2: Example from the Austrian REPLACE heating matrix (source: REPLACE)

The REPLACE your Heating System Calculator is one of the main outputs of the project. The tool is based on the Austrian klimaaktiv Hexit Calculator (from the Federal Ministry for Climate Action). This calculator allows you to objectively compare and evaluate new clean heating systems for your existing building, whether a stove or a boiler based heating system, over their lifetime and draw conclusions about actual costs and environmental performance.

Figure 3 shows the existing and new clean heating systems (and energy carriers) that are included in the tool, whether they are central heating systems (with a distribution system) or stoves (without a distribution system).

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Figure 3: Overview of the REPLACE heating calculator and the included energy carriers and heating technologies (source: REPLACE).

The result of the assessment is both a financial consideration of the investment and operating costs, as well as the annual cost savings and annual CO2 emission avoidance compared to the existing system.

In more detail, 

• all currently possible subsidies of nine European target regions are included in the overall (full costs) consideration, 
• the tool features technical and economical default values that apply to residential buildings from single-family houses to blocks of flats with up to 1,000 m² of living space, applicable for your target region 
• it assists end consumers, intermediaries (like installers, energy advisers etc.) and investors in a quick mode (with just three steps for getting a result) and professional mode, in the latter mode actual project-specific values can be considered, and 
• a lot of further information like technology factsheets, national best practice examples and useful contacts for boiler and stove heating system replacements are provided. 

By this means, it is possible to find the best future-proof, resilient and climate-friendly alternative to your old heating system in just a few steps, product-neutral and in a highly professional way.

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Figure 4: Extract from the results section of the REPLACE heating calculator, in which manual adjustments to various factors are possible (source: REPLACE)

The replacement handbook for end consumers, and the replacement handbook for intermediaries and investors, are oriented to allow better-informed decisions and available for each REPLACE target country. The handbooks provide easy-to-digest information on climate-friendly technologies that are available to move away from fossil fuels. It provides information of where the technologies are most appropriate and what combinations of technologies are feasible. The content is technology neutral and promotes the principle of energy efficiency first.

A handbook per country has been produced as well as a general one in English, with useful information aimed at end users, including the benefits of replacing old inefficient heating systems, steps to take, FAQs, technology fact sheets (including passive measures) and contacts for further information at regional level. The handbook for professionals also includes guidance on planning, business models and financing.

Furthermore, the REPLACE collection of best practice examples collects 38 existing best practice and examples on residential building refurbishment, heating and cooling systems replacement and collective actions in all participating countries. The report shows how replacements can be carried out under real local conditions, while being technically and economically feasible.

Conclusion

REPLACE has used a unique approach to bring together key players at the local level to design and implement effective, tailor-made measures to support the clean heat transition in its pilot regions. The REPLACE project developed several tools to help households make informed decisions about which renewable heating system is best for their home. The project has identified successful activities and the reasons for their success in specific regions, which can be imparted beyond the project’s lifespan to facilitate the adoption of measures that promote the transition to clean heating in other regions.

References

1. European Parliament (2022): Energy saving and demand reduction. Online: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2022/733666/EPRS_BRI(2022)733666_EN.pdf [01.06.2023]
2. European Parliament (2022): Energy saving and demand reduction. Online: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2022/733666/EPRS_BRI(2022)733666_EN.pdf [01.06.2023]
3. European Heating Industry (2022): State of the installed stock of heating systems. Online: https://heating-retrofit.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/HARP-Workshop-EHI-Presentation.pdf [01.06.2023]
4. klimaaktiv is the Austrian climate protection initiative and integral part of the Austrian climate strategy. It´s primary objective is to launch and promote climate-friendly technologies and services