Climate protection is not solely a national task, but an international challenge to be tackled with combined effort, reaching across borders. This is why co2online initiated a pan-European campaign entitled “European Citizens Climate Cup” (ECCC), as a competition in which private householders in European countries are encouraged to take part. The ECCC aims to prove that a large number of citizens can meet European emissions reduction targets without a great deal of effort.

As in sports competitions, the ECCC appeals to national pride and team spirit as additional motivating factors for saving energy. There are ten first-round contenders: Ireland, UK, Denmark, Latvia, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Malta, Greece and Germany. Throughout a one year period, national teams consisting of participating householders in these countries will compete for the “Climate Cup” title. The winner will be the national team with the highest energy savings for heating and electricity. Additionally, each country will award the “Energy Saver of the Year” title to the household in their country with the highest reduction in CO2 emissions and the most convincing energy saving measures.

The first round of the “European Citizens Climate Cup” starts on 1 February 2011. All 74 million households in the participating countries are invited to join the competition. Participating households enter their consumption and cost data from meter readings and energy bills into the web-based software “interactive Energy Savings Account” (iESA), which can be accessed via the campaign website at www.theclimatecup.eu. This intelligent software stores, processes, and evaluates consumption data, displaying trends of past and future consumption, costs and emissions. The iESA benchmarks energy savings and calculates the reductions in CO2 emissions of the different national teams, monitoring the progress of the competition. It displays a ranking of the national teams in the competition and helps determine the national “Energy Savers of the Year”.

We aim to motivate 10,000 households to actively participate in the contest. Active participants not only register an “Energy Savings Account”, but use this account regularly, which provides an effective means of administering and controlling a households’ energy consumption. Furthermore, participants regularly receive energy advice and tips on how to reduce energy consumption. User surveys help to improve the usability of the iESA and provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of individual energy savings measures.

For further information please contact:

Claudia Julius, E-Mail: claudia.julius(at)co2online.de

Domestic heating pumps in many boiler rooms consume much more electricity than is necessary. They are often too old, the wrong size, and run at times when they are not needed. The electricity consumption of pumps in many heating systems could easily be reduced by 80 per cent.

For this purpose, co2online has developed the interactive online adviser, entitled “PumpsCheck”. With the help of this tool, owners of houses and flats can check the electricity consumption and respective CO2 emissions of domestic heating pumps and hot-water circulation pumps.

The online adviser is of benefit not only to owners and property managers; it also helps plumbers to convince their customers, with sound arguments based on cost-effectiveness and estimated electricity savings, of the necessity of replacing uneconomical pumps. The PumpsCheck encourages cost-effective modernisation measures, from which plumbers, owners and tenants all benefit.

Since its introduction in Germany in August 2005, the PumpsCheck has provided advice to 350,000 property owners. In Germany, pump replacement proves to be worthwhile for every second user of the PumpsCheck, and the installation of a new pump pays for itself, on average, in less than five years. The figures speak for themselves: two-thirds of property owners follow the online advice and have a new pump installed, basing the choice of new pump capacity on recommendations from the PumpsCheck. A quarter of these pumps are installed by one of the plumbers recommended at the conclusion of the PumpsCheck. Replacing an old pump with a more economical and efficient pump avoids the emission of 50,000 tonnes of climatically harmful carbon dioxide over the theoretical remaining service life of the old pump alone.

Due to the success of the online adviser in the German market, the pump manufacturer Grundfos joined forces with co2online in a campaign to offer the PumpsCheck to property owners in Switzerland, Poland and Great Britain (2006–2008).