We didn’t let you know ? The International Energy Agency has recruited you. You, me, everyone. Mobilized on the frontlines of an energy crisis exacerbated on the one hand by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, on the other, by the assaults on humanity of a freewheeling climate, here are the citizens forced – by the convictions, the wallet, or both – to “play their part”. Our mission, communicated on April 21 by the AIE, consists of nine simple actions, the first of which sounds obvious: turn down the heating and air conditioning.
Heating is in fact the primary source of energy consumption in the home – two-thirds of the home’s energy bill. For ten years, the prices of electricity and gas have not stopped climbing (respectively + 41% and + 23%), while more than two thirds of French people heat themselves with these energies, details the Agency of the environment and energy management (Ademe). In this context, franceinfo wondered about the changes to be made to win this fight against energy consumption, and about the resistance it encounters.
Turn down the heat even more (if you can)
In the category “those war efforts that you did not see coming”: putting on a sweater allows, in the next world, to “cut off the financing of the war”. Economist Christian Gollier called for this in a column published in the World March 15, at the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Institutions, politicians, associations and communities have indeed invited citizens to lower the heating, to limit our dependence on Russian energies.
Let’s cut funding for the Russian army and save the planet. Call for energy sobriety in Europe, here and now. pic.twitter.com/IRyQR0h8VZ
— Christian Gollier (@CGollier) March 6, 2022
In 2021, the French were already 75% to declare cut the heating and the water heater, and 70% to have lowered the temperature of their accommodation, an increase of 5 and 9 points respectively compared to the previous year. A gesture not for Ukraine, but for the planet, according to Ademe’s 22nd barometer on the social representation of climate change.
Are we all already good little soldiers of the energy transition? No, says Olivier Sidler, co-founder of the NégaWatt association and pioneer in the energy renovation of buildings. The law, he recalls, provides that the temperature can reach a minimum of 18 ° C and does not exceed 19 ° C in collective housing. But at home, decades of cheap energy have left us with bad habits. “The average temperature observed in houses today in France is 21°C. During our assessments, we see buildings in which it is 23°C, notes the specialist. I understand that we can consider making an effort by going from 23 to 21, but let’s try to respect the regulations anyway. Heating at 19°C is good citizenship.”
“In winter, we still dress in buildings like in summer. This is no longer possible. With a sweater, the 19°C are very bearable.”
Olivier Sidler, co-founder of the NégaWatt associationat franceinfo
Seemingly trivial, the effort is not within everyone’s reach. Excluded are the French who, in their collective housing, do not have their hands on the thermostat. And to lower the heating, you still have to be “well heated”. During the winter of 2020-2021, one in five households suffered from the cold in their home for reasons related to fuel poverty, according to Ademe. Reports of “thermal discomfort” even increased by more than 40% compared to the previous winter.
Gold, “not being able to heat oneself, constrained by low incomes and a habitat that consumes too much energy, this will never be sobriety”, insists Isolde Devalière, sociologist at Ademe. This specialist in energy poverty issues recalls that “Having a comfortable home is a right”.
The injunction “add a sweater”, written by the Crous in an email sent in November to students frozen in their university residence in Bordeaux (where a France 2 team recorded 14°C in a room), illustrates the double challenge that awaits the French: to commit in the path of sobriety, of course, but also in the field of energy efficiency. A drop of two degrees in heating represents “16% less consumption”, explains Oliver Sidler. “If you consume 300 kWh per m2 per year, that’s a saving of 48 kWh per m2 per year, he calculates. At 20 cents per kWh if heating with fuel oil, this represents a gain of around 10 euros per m2. It’s not nothing.”
Carry out a complete renovation (if you have the money or if you are not afraid of the steps)
Thermal colanders are everywhere. According to Ademe, 40% of households complain of poor insulation in their homes. Thanks to recent measures such as Ma prime rénov’, open to all households in January 2021 as well as to condominiums, more and more owners are undertaking the necessary work. Last year, 644 073 aid has been granted under this scheme, i.e. 4.5 times more than in 2020, according to figures from theNational Housing Agency (Anah).
Except that“iWe have less than 30 years left to renovate just over 20 million homes, i.e. just over 700,000 per year”nuance Oliver Sidler. “Does that mean changing 700,000 boilers a year, or doing 700,000 complete renovations?”asks the expert, pointing out that “It’s not the same thing”. Changing an ancestral boiler will allow “small energy savings because the performance will be better”. “But basically, if the envelope of the house is always the same, it does not change anything“, he continues.
“Two windows one year, two more the following year, etc. Government measures encourage us to proceed by small gestures, whereas only an effective and complete renovation can meet our objectives.”
Olivier Sidler, co-founder of the NégaWatt associationat franceinfo
Roof, walls, low floor, exterior carpentry, ventilation system, boiler, radiators… The complete renovation of a home can divide “by four and up to eight housing needs” in electricity, points out Olivier Sidler. However, these large-scale works frighten the owners, cooled by the costs and the difficulties linked to the lack of skilled craftsmen to carry out such projects.
In 2017, a complete and efficient renovation cost 406 euros per square meter for a detached house, according to the design office founded by Olivier Sidler, Enertech. It’s around 500 euros today, with inflation, he says. In the renovated houses studied, the work amounted to “62,200 euros including tax for an average surface area of around 100 to 120 m2”. Who can afford such an investment? “It will surprise you, but it is accessible to modest households”, assures Oliver Sidler.
But for many, the obstacle course is insurmountable, as Ademe points out: “Households are confronted with a multiplicity of national and local aid systems and a lack of knowledge of support pathways”. “We now know that it is not enough that the device exists. We need support from the first home visit to the works, including monitoring and control of the site”believes sociologist Isolde Devalière.
On average, a French household consumes between 200 and 300 kWh per m2 per year. “In thermal sieves, it goes up to more than 300 kWh”, notes Olivier Sidler. However, in a completely renovated house, with maximum energy efficiency, “a consumption of 47 kWh per m2 and per year was measured, for an average temperature of 20°C.” Or 39 kWh per m2 per year, if heated to 19°C, assesses the expert. The financial gain is considerable. “If you have saved 200 kWh per m2, at 20 cents per kWh, that’s a saving of 40 euros per square meter. On a 100 m2 dwelling, that represents 4,000 euros per year. At the price of energy now, it is very profitable, he insists. You earn money from the first year, because you repay less than what you save after the work.”
Don’t forget the small effective gestures of everyday life
There are also other levers than heating. And for good reason, “For several years, the share of the budget devoted to heating has been decreasing, but electricity consumption has continued to increase (+40% since 1990)”, writes Ademe. Her Household Tip Guide “more and more equipped with electrical and electronic devices”. On average, we count “nearly a hundred” per household.
These economical practices, already implemented by low-income households but often limited “DIY” (especially among tenants, who cannot carry out work), must be valued, underlines Isolde Devalière. The French are not mistaken: in 2021, 62% of them already ensured that they turned off electrical appliances (up 7 points compared to the previous year).
Over a year, an internet box on 24 hours a day consumes as much as a refrigerator, observes Ademe. Covering pans while cooking uses four times less electricity or gas. Washing clothes at 30°C requires three times less energy than washing clothes at 90°C. Ademe also calculates that “fifteen to fifty devices per household remain on standby unnecessarily, which represents a cost of 80 euros per year”. Turning them off allows 10% savings on the bill, according to the agency.
“The small cumulative gestures can be spectacular on the bill. Provided you go to the end of things.”
Olivier Sidler, co-founder of the NégaWatt associationat franceinfo
Especially since these “small gestures” individuals turn out to be decisive on a national scale. According to NégaWatt, RTE estimates that postponing a quarter of washing machine, dryer and dishwasher cycles from peak hours to another time of the day or night can generate a gain of around 0, 5 GW of power for the whole of France. That is a little less than the electricity consumption of a city like Toulouse.