More than one in ten Europeans cannot afford to heat their homes.
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The shame is governments not doing anything to subsidise the energy.
I am lucky enough to now live in a country where electricity is subsidised and on top of that climate is mild enough not to have to heat my home that much.
I spend in a year what I used to in a month in my former place in Belgium.
Yes moving to the South was for a part motivated by energy prices.What I'd like to see in place of a direct energy subsidy would be a program to upgrade the heating infrastructure in each home to highly energy efficient variants, thus reducing the energy demands for the occupant and simultaneously addressing issues of grid energy consumption and emissions.
I'm talking about upgrades to insulation and the installation of heat pumps. The heat pumps could even perform double duty by being reversible so that they can provide air conditioning in warm months, further saving lives, at the expense of negating some of the reduction in energy consumption.
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Some 47 million people in Europe were unable to heat their homes sufficiently last winter. This figure has risen dramatically since 2021. Three factors are decisive when it comes to “energy poverty”: obsolete buildings, high energy costs, and low household incomes. Experts warn that the result may be social conflict.
What is sufficiently?
Last couple of summers I left the thermostat at 19°C. I prefer 21. But bills got really out of hand, so 19 it is.
Would this count?
Anyway, social conflict will not happen over this. The worst things on this regard happened a couple of years ago when prices spiked dramatically, and nothing happened.
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What is sufficiently?
Last couple of summers I left the thermostat at 19°C. I prefer 21. But bills got really out of hand, so 19 it is.
Would this count?
Anyway, social conflict will not happen over this. The worst things on this regard happened a couple of years ago when prices spiked dramatically, and nothing happened.
In the EU-wide survey conducted by Eurostat, participants were asked whether their household could afford the adequately heat the home. No fixed temperature was specified; answers are based on self-assessment.
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What I'd like to see in place of a direct energy subsidy would be a program to upgrade the heating infrastructure in each home to highly energy efficient variants, thus reducing the energy demands for the occupant and simultaneously addressing issues of grid energy consumption and emissions.
I'm talking about upgrades to insulation and the installation of heat pumps. The heat pumps could even perform double duty by being reversible so that they can provide air conditioning in warm months, further saving lives, at the expense of negating some of the reduction in energy consumption.
The biggest problem here: Any subsidy in regard of renovating or insulating would go to the landlord. And the landlord is even allowed to hike your rent if he renovates the building.
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Some 47 million people in Europe were unable to heat their homes sufficiently last winter. This figure has risen dramatically since 2021. Three factors are decisive when it comes to “energy poverty”: obsolete buildings, high energy costs, and low household incomes. Experts warn that the result may be social conflict.
As the article says, this problem has several layers.
We have also energy problem in my apartment in Riga. State offers us something like 70000€ to insulate our 120 year old hause. The catch is, me and my neighbors have to pull that money together, do the renovation and after the fact we are reimbursed. But dude. Who has such money laying around!?
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The biggest problem here: Any subsidy in regard of renovating or insulating would go to the landlord. And the landlord is even allowed to hike your rent if he renovates the building.
An affordance would need to be in place to counteract that effect, yes.
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As the article says, this problem has several layers.
We have also energy problem in my apartment in Riga. State offers us something like 70000€ to insulate our 120 year old hause. The catch is, me and my neighbors have to pull that money together, do the renovation and after the fact we are reimbursed. But dude. Who has such money laying around!?
I know people don't like to hear it but, assuming you and your neighbours collectively own the house, taking out a loan for a renovation like this isn't the worst idea. Might be a massive headache though.
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As the article says, this problem has several layers.
We have also energy problem in my apartment in Riga. State offers us something like 70000€ to insulate our 120 year old hause. The catch is, me and my neighbors have to pull that money together, do the renovation and after the fact we are reimbursed. But dude. Who has such money laying around!?
That is what loans are for. You own the house and this can work as collatoral.
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Some 47 million people in Europe were unable to heat their homes sufficiently last winter. This figure has risen dramatically since 2021. Three factors are decisive when it comes to “energy poverty”: obsolete buildings, high energy costs, and low household incomes. Experts warn that the result may be social conflict.
Didn't expect to run into data from my work in the wild! I figured this came from the SILC survey when I read the title.
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I know people don't like to hear it but, assuming you and your neighbours collectively own the house, taking out a loan for a renovation like this isn't the worst idea. Might be a massive headache though.
@[email protected] and @[email protected]
I did look up our loan options and we were denied for two reasons:- We have one chronic utilities non-payer in the hose and another one chronic late payer
- The house is made out of wood and thus is considered as high risk.
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