Energy efficiency through change of energy-related behavior represents a significant promise in terms of energy savings. Building occupants' behavior has a great influence on final energy consumption, and although behavioral savings potentials were usually omitted, there is, currently, a revitalized research interest in applying social and behavioral science to energy efficiency research. The research focuses mainly on the residential sector, attempting to explore the relationships between energy use, behavioral determinants, and effective strategies to promote more efficient behaviors. While the promise is significant, it is also clear that not only the complexity of behaviors but also our interpretation and elaboration of existing volume of behavior change theory, create a set of challenges that research should overcome, if it is to move towards a more integrated approach. This paper presents a review of literature on energy behavior as a basis to understand how behavior change occurs, what the main determinants of behavior are, how these are related to applied interventions focusing on altering residential energy use, and finally how all these aspects can be evaluated. Issues for further research are identified.

The research activities described in this paper focus on the development and implementation of a comprehensive and cost-effective system for Net Zero Energy (NZE) settlements. The system is composed of innovative solutions for the building envelope, for building energy generation, and for energy management at the settlement level. The developed solutions will be implemented in 4 different demonstration projects throughout the EU, with varying climates and building types. The results of their implementation will be monitored, analyzed. The target is to achieve a reduction of operational energy usage to 0-20 kWh/m2 per year through a transition from single NZE buildings to NZE settlements, in which the energy loads and resources are optimally managed. In addition, investment costs will be at least 16% lower than current nZEB costs. In this paper, the methodology that was developed in order to optimize the energy, environmental and cost plans of the four case studies through the best integration and combination of the selected innovative energy technologies with excellent architectural and engineering design is described. In addition the evaluation of the four NZE settlements in terms of energy, environmental and cost performance is presented

Existing research suggests that students are an under-reported and under-supported group of the population that frequently lives in fuel poverty. Furthermore, studies show that students do not realize that they live in fuel poor conditions and are rarely recognized as a group vulnerable to fuel poverty. The aim of the research presented in this paper is to understand, evaluate and consequently reveal the experiences of students living in the private-rentedd sector, quantify their possible exposure to fuel poverty, and to determine the impacts of this exposure on their well-being. Three thousand five hundred and twelve students from seven European countries participated in this research making it the largest study to date targeting this specific social group. Our results demonstrate that this group is vulnerable to fuel poverty and that their exposure to such conditions can have a detrimental effect on both their mental and physical health, as well as their social life.