About DEAP

Digital Energy Advisory Process

Why the project was launched 

Many older detached houses in Finland and Estonia lose unnecessary heat and use more energy than needed. Although energy performance certificates exist, they often overlook how people actually live in their homes. Homeowners are left without clear, practical guidance on what improvements would make the biggest difference. 

At the same time, public energy advisory services are fragmented and understaffed. Residents struggle to find timely, tailored advice. Energy advisors spend valuable time collecting basic building and user data instead of focusing on expert recommendations. 

DEAP was launched to address this gap by creating a more structured and efficient way to deliver reliable energy advice. 

What DEAP does 

DEAP develops a shared Finnish–Estonian digital energy advisory process model for detached house homeowners & occupants. 

At the centre of the project is a guided online checklist that: 

• Gathers occupant general information and motivation 
• Collects key information about the building 
• Captures household energy habits and goals 
• Transfers structured information directly to energy advisors 

This creates a clear digital pathway from homeowner to advisor, replacing scattered forms, emails and phone calls with one coherent entry point. 

The model follows a two-step logic: 

1. Homeowners complete a structured digital screening, giving them an overview of their situation. 

2. Advisors use the organised data to provide targeted, high-quality recommendations. 

This approach allows advisers to focus on expert analysis based on structured data regarding the occupants and the building involved. 

How the project is implemented

During the project, Finnish and Estonian partners jointly design and refine a structured advisory model for residential energy services. The work begins with mapping existing advisory practices and defining a shared framework and questionnaire structure.

Next, the partners develop the digital checklist and process logic, ensuring that it supports both homeowners and energy advisers in a practical way. The model is tested and improved together with advisers and users to ensure usability and relevance.

In the final phase, the results are consolidated into a transferable toolkit that advisory organisations across the Central Baltic region can adopt and integrate into their own services.

Cross-border cooperation 

DEAP brings together Finnish and Estonian partners to jointly design and test a shared advisory framework. 

During the project, partners jointly design and refine the advisory model, develop the digital checklist and process logic, and test the approach in practice. The results will form a transferable toolkit that can be adopted by advisory organisations across the Central Baltic region.

The model is developed through close cooperation between: 

• Universities 
• Regional energy agencies 
• Municipal advisory actors 

The structure and content have been refined together with homeowners, energy advisors and other experts to ensure that the tool is: 

• Technically functional and provides enough data for advisory services 
• Easy for homeowners to use 
• Practical for advisory organisations 
• Adaptable across the Central Baltic region 

The toolkit will be openly shareable, allowing advisory organisations to integrate it into their own websites. 

Expected impact 

For homeowners: 

• Faster and clearer recommendations 
• Better understanding of energy-saving options 
• Faster decision-making 

For advisory organisations: 

• Reduced time spent on basic data collection 
• More consistent and comparable advisory 
• Improved service efficiency 

For the region: 

• Stronger cross-border cooperation 
• More effective public energy advisory services 
• Concrete progress toward EU one-stop-shop requirements 
• Contribution to climate and energy targets