The European Citizen Climate Cup is a competition launched on April 2011 ( during the European Sustainable Energy Week) for householders across Europe encouraging them to compete either against each other at a national level or as part of a team at a European level.

Householders are required to register for an “Energy Savings Account” (ESA) by accessing their National Climate Cup web page and regularly insert their energy bill data into the ESA for one year.

To get the most out of this competition it is important that householders keep their ESA up to date , which may mean just 10 minutes every 2 months. Throughout the competition, participants are encouraged to implement measures aimed at reducing their energy consumption, these may be simple things such as switching off the lights when leaving the room or larger more structural changes to the homeuse or its envelope.

The ESA account stores and registers the data inserted and provides an effective means of administering and controlling the energy consumption.

The ESA also provides information on the competition, it benchmarks energy savings and calculates the reductions in CO2 emissions of the different national teams, monitoring the progress of the competition. It displays a ranking of the national teams in the competition and helps determine the national “Energy Champions of the Year”.

Furthermore, participants regularly receive energy advice and tips on how to reduce energy consumption. User surveys help to improve the usability of the ESA and provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of individual energy savings measures.