Digital Energy Advisory Process

Digital Energy Advisory Process (DEAP) is a 15-month Interreg Central Baltic project coordinated by Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK). Its goal is to make energy-efficiency decisions easier for detached-house owners and to speed up advisors’ work in Finland and Estonia by delivering one clear, digital advisory pathway:
- a standardised checklist that gathers building and occupancy data, user-friendly guidance that helps homeowners collect the information and understand potential savings, and a web-based platform that links the checklist and guidance to professionals’ analysis.

The work progresses in three steps: (1) co-creating the checklist with advisors and residents, (2) building the multilingual guides and online platform, and (3) piloting the full process in Pirkanmaa (FI) and South Estonia, then finalising it for wider use.

DEAP answers the current fragmentation of services and the new EPBD/EED requirement for one-stop-shop energy advice. The pilot-tested model will be technology-neutral, scalable and free of charge; it raises advisory quality, cuts data-collection time for advisors, and broadens the impact of energy-efficiency actions across the Central Baltic region.

Detached houses in the Central Baltic region—especially older ones—consume too much energy, and homeowners lack clear, trustworthy guidance on what upgrades to do and when. Only a minority have an energy performance certificate, and those certificates ignore occupant behaviour, so decisions are made on incomplete data. Advisory services are fragmented and unevenly resourced: in Pirkanmaa support is available, whereas in Estonia advice has focused on apartment-block renovations, leaving single-family owners largely without help. Advisors themselves lose time hunting for scattered information, which delays recommendations. At the same time, updated EU directives (EPBD Art. 18 and the revised EED) require Member States to offer citizen-oriented one-stop-shop energy advice—something the current system cannot provide. DEAP is therefore needed to close these gaps with a unified digital pathway that streamlines data collection, speeds up high-quality guidance and supports the region’s climate-energy goals.

DEAP aims to transform today’s fragmented, labour-intensive energy advice into one streamlined digital pathway. A standardised checklist, multilingual user guides and a web platform will replace manual data hunting with a single online entry point for both homeowners and advisor. During the pilot, at least 40 detached-house owners are expected to submit their building data through the checklist, while advisors’ data-processing time should fall by roughly 30 %, demonstrating faster, higher-quality service. The checklist, guides, platform and the validated DEAP model together form an EPBD/EED-compliant one-stop shop that can be adopted by other organisations across the Central Baltic region.

DEAP generates both immediate and long-term positive change. During the pilot phase at least 40 detached-house owners will feed their building data into the new digital checklist and energy advisors’ data-handling time is expected to fall by roughly 30 percent, proving that guidance becomes faster and more precise.

After refinement, the complete DEAP model—checklist, user guides and web platform—will be taken up by at least one public advisory organisation, meeting the programme’s “solutions up-scaled” result target and creating a ready-made template for others.

Because the materials are built directly into ECOF’s and TREA’s existing energy-advice websites and remain free for wider reuse, they can be adopted across the Central Baltic region well beyond the project lifetime.

By giving homeowners a single, behaviour-aware entry point to reliable recommendations and letting advisors focus on expert analysis rather than manual data collection, DEAP accelerates cost-effective energy upgrades and helps national authorities meet EPBD/EED one-stop-shop obligations.

Interreg Central Baltic 2021-2027

Interreg Central Baltic