Open access article – Opportunities for Promoting Healthy Homes and Long-Lasting Energy-Efficient Behaviour among Families with Children in Portugal (2023)
Energy poverty vulnerability constitutes a significant concern in Portugal, with 17.5% of the population being unable to keep their home adequately warm. Furthermore, there is evidence that a substantial number of children live in unhealthy homes. This study aims to comprehensively characterise a sample of 101 Portuguese families with children and their homes in order to identify opportunities for actions for promoting long-lasting energy efficiency and environment health-promoting behavioural changes. To accomplish this aim, two tools—a building survey checklist and a questionnaire to participants—were developed and implemented to collect harmonised data on building-specific characteristics and on participants’ socioeconomic status and behaviour. The home visits for recruitment and data collection were conducted from July 2021 to April 2022. The results suggest that, for the population under study, the main opportunities for improvement include: (i) replacing low energy-efficient technologies, with high emission rates, namely those used for heating purposes, with cleaner and more efficient alternatives; (ii) providing citizens with detailed information about their home’s energy use and indoor air quality and (iii) educating the population on the best-practices for reducing indoor air stuffiness, mitigating the risk of hazardous exposures, improving thermal comfort and saving energy.
Gabriel, M.F.; Cardoso, J.P.; Felgueiras, F.; Azeredo, J.; Filipe, D.; Conradie, P.; Van Hove, S.; Mourão, Z.; Anagnostopoulos, F.; Azevedo, I. Opportunities for Promoting Healthy Homes and Long-Lasting Energy-Efficient Behaviour among Families with Children in Portugal. Energies 2023, 16, 1872. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16041872
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integration of Energy, Health and Comfort: Towards a Sustainable Building Stock)
Promoting healthy homes and long-lasting energy efficient behaviour among families with children in Portugal: Preliminary data from NUDGE project
With the same topic, an abstract was submitted, and accepted to the conference “CEES 2023 – 2nd International Conference on Construction, Energy, Environment & Sustainability. It was accepted as an oral communication conducted in June 2023.