Energia da Casa: what heating, cooling and damp cost in every Portuguese municipality

Context

Portugal has one of the highest shares of people unable to keep their home adequately warm in the EU (15.7% in 2024, against an EU average of 9.2%, Eurostat), and many homes are also too hot in summer. Heating and cooling equipment is usually bought from sales pitches, and the cheapest appliance to buy is often the most expensive to run. 

Target audience

• Households in all 308 Portuguese municipalities, especially tenants and low-income families choosing between electric heaters, air conditioners, dehumidifiers or small renovation works
• The social workers, energy agencies and municipal one-stop shops who advise them

Objectives

1. Make running costs visible before a purchase, in euros and adjusted to the local climate
2. Show that efficient options, such as heating with a heat-pump air conditioner instead of a resistive heater, cost a fraction to run
3. Explain damp, condensation and mold, common in Portuguese homes, and how to deal with them cheaply
4. Point households to the energy-efficiency support that is actually open

Activities

• Free calculators for air-conditioner sizing and running cost, electric heater cost, the savings from new windows and external wall insulation, and dehumidifier consumption
• Over 70 guide documents in European Portuguese on cooling, heating, windows, insulation, damp and mold
• A web page tracking the status of national and municipal energy-efficiency grants. All figures come from official sources (EU EPREL energy labels, ERSE regulated tariffs, the Manual SCE climate zones, LNEC U-values and the CAOP2025 municipality list), and every formula is published on the methodology page. The site is free, has no ads, needs no registration and uses no cookies or third-party tracking

KPIs

• Households using the calculators each month, by municipality and season (cookieless statistics)
• Coverage (308 of 308 municipalities)
• Data freshness (appliance data re-checked weekly against EPREL, tariffs updated at each ERSE revision)
• Share of visits that reach a guide on cheaper heating or on support schemes

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• 
  Countries impacted:
  

  Portugal
• 
  Geographical scale:
  

  National
• 
  Energy poverty phase:
  

  Diagnosis
• 
  Intervention type:
  

  Consumer Advice, protection and empowerment

  Household energy efficiency and refurbishment

  Transparency and information sharing
• 
  Professionals involved:
  

  Other
• 
  Website:
  Case website
• SDGs addressed: