A quarter of Hungarian households would retrofit

24 % of the households in Hungary plan to improve their homes' energy performance. More than half of them would insulate their houses, thus insulation is considered the most popular investment related to energy efficiency as revealed by ENERGIAKLUB Climate Policy Institute after carrying out a nationwide, representative, public research.

Based on the country-wide research of ENERGIAKLUB, a quarter (24%) of Hungarian households intend to implement energy related renovation of their homes within 3 years, while 15% of them would take this step already in the next one year. More than half of those aiming at energetic renovation intend to get their homes insulated, 25% envisage to replace doors and windows, whilst a quarter of them intend to modernize heating or combine the improvements aforementioned.

Some 40% of those renovating would launch energy efficiency improvement projects to achieve energy conservation and overhead reduction. As much as 35% would do the investment for available devices having become worn-out or broken down. According to future investors, energy bills would be reduced at least by 10%, yet, the average level of cost reduction is expected to be 30%. Among those having carried out energy efficiency improvements in the past, 76% achieved savings as expected or even higher. Only 7% have realized lower savings than expected. 79% of the retrofitting home owners financed the investments from own resources, 18% took bank loan, while 2% used home savings for this purposes.

During the investigation made with the help of the KutatoLabor – an independent research institute - it turned out that Hungarian households are well aware of the importance and usefullness of energy improvements and they are open to investments. Yet, many of them fail to use expertise that would be essential for well-directed energy efficiency improvements. Upon the results of the research, nearly half (47%) of those planning the improvements gather information via the Internet instead of consulting an expert or, alternatively, they seek their relatives’ and acquaintances’ advice (24%). Only 15% have decided to take counsel with a professional.

Energy performance certificate has become obligatory since 1st January 2012 also in Hungary. 58% of the respondents were aware of the fact that they are entitled to require this certificate about the real estate to be bought or rented. Yet, 82% of them have never seen such a certificate. 73% of the investors do not intend to get this certificate, probably due to the fact that 64% of them do not even know how much an energy performance certificate would cost.