Energy performance label in Flanders – an example of behaviourally-informed policy tool

Abstract

The energy performance certificate (EPC) is mandatory in the EU, aiming to enable prospective buyers and renters to compare dwellings in terms of energy performance. Flanders intends to improve its current EPC, by adding a label to the existing coloured scale and EPC score. Our research aimed to inform the Flemish Energy Agency by testing before releasing the new version of the certificate, thus being an example of behaviourally-informed policies. Firstly, a literature review of experiments on information framing in similar contexts is presented. Given the evidence of the importance of information framing, we tested ten versions of the new label (N= 224). Nudges used included social norm, anchoring and rescaling. Dependent variables were perceived energy efficiency, energy consumption and estimated percentage of Flemish dwellings with a better label. Besides, we tested whether respondents are aware that the label is relative to the dwelling size. Based on these results the label was rescaled, from the initial G to A, to F to A+. Rescaling corrects the overoptimistic assessment of the energy performance label F compared to the rest of the dwelling stock. Another finding is that presenting information as bar graph is more effective than plain text.