Background The need to optimise energy consumption in the home is widely recognised, but more work is needed. Information and communication technology and tools, in particular, represent a great opportunity for improving energy use and efficiency in the housing sector. Energy consumption is an important criterion to consider in new construction projects as well as during the renovation of old buildings. In Extremadura, current regulations have focused mainly on new constructions. However, many houses urgently need renovating. There is a great potential for developing building renovation strategies and practices that incorporate energy sustainability principles. Objectives The purpose of the EDEA-RENOV project was to test and propose concrete solutions for reducing the environmental impact of the housing construction sector. The project would focus on three main areas: renovation; innovation in new constructions; and the use of information and communication technology. Specific objectives were to: Improve the quality of buildings, an important way of achieving long-term solutions to the problems of high energy bills and a better quality of life; Incorporate information and communication technologies to improve the environmental performance of buildings; Create a methodology for calculating the optimal cost of energy performance requirements for buildings; Incorporate energy management systems through the use of ICT; and Incorporate elements of water savings (which indirectly contribute to energy savings as well). The project's geographical scope was the region of Extremadura, southwest Spain. Although the main testing would be related to the specific climate of the region, the project would develop a knowledge base and IT tools that are relevant for any type of climate, and thus make the results easily transferable to other regions and contexts. Results The EDEA-RENOV project demonstrated that energy efficiency in the housing sector can pave the way towards the adoption of a sustainable development model. It successfully tackled the environmental, social and economic components of sustainable development. First, the project demonstrated that it is economically feasible to reduce the carbon footprint of social housings (although its finding are applicable to any dwelling place) by means of active and passive energy saving measures. Such savings improve the quality of life of the inhabitants, decrease energy consumption, generate economic savings and in some cases even alleviate ‘energy poverty’, which is a serious problem in Spain. The project moreover increased knowledge of household energy management and the use of IT technologies. The project demonstrated that energy saving measures in the housing sector can lead to savings of up to 30%. Changing people’s habits also has a contribution. Energy monitoring found leaving electronic appliances in stand-by mode accounts for 15% of household energy consumption. The neighbourhood selected for the project were suburbs with high unemployment rates, low education levels, minority issues and even security conflicts (e.g. San Lazaro in Cáceres). Local neighbourhood associations actively collaborated with the project (especially Santa Engracia in Badajoz), helping the beneficiary gain the confidence of the inhabitants. Local and regional administrations in Spain offer a great amount of rented public housings. Lowering the energy bill for families in these houses is extremely welcome. The project enhanced the capabilities of technicians working in these areas. It developed a substantial training scheme for technicians and unemployed people on energy rehabilitation and demonstrated that improving the energy performance of social housings not only creates new employment opportunities but also promotes the use of new technologies. Specific results include: More than 500 simulations in nine models of representative buildings in two different neighbourhoods of social dwellings, leading to the discovery of the most suitable energy rehabilitation measures in each case; Six social houses energy rehabilitations, studying the costs and real improvements in the buildings; 10 tests of energy improvements and installations in EDEA demonstrators in Caceres; EDEAsim: online energy simulator, which is able to study the energy efficiency of any building, allowing accurate rehabilitation studies to be easily made; Eight dwellings monitored in order to check the real improvements achieved after the energy rehabilitations and user’s energy consumption behaviour; The EFICIEX tool: a low-cost and open source monitoring system that is able to measure the dwelling comfort and energy consumption, providing notifications through a mobile app using wireless sensors and open source hardware and software; 16 technical courses (theoretical and practical) in order to train builders, technicians and users; Six main publications to improve the knowledge and tools of users and technicians in the energy-efficiency field; ClimEX: Extremadura climate database that provides climate files of 66 towns of the region; More than 1 000 people visited the EDEA demonstrators during the project; More than 1 300 people attended courses and talks on energy rehabilitation and construction legislation.The project developed new open source software tools (EDEAsim and EIFICEX) and hardware monitoring equipment based on wireless technologies that significantly simplify installation and operation for the end user. These tools open up new opportunities for defining energy rehabilitation strategies. EDEAsim allows users to create their own modelling scenarios, identify areas for improvement and further their understanding of energy consumption and the environmental and economical benefits of reduction. Overall, the project highlighted the need to improve the technical knowledge of technicians working in the public administration on energy-efficiency strategies. It also showed that energy rehabilitation has a significant potential for jobs creation. Public support is also needed for the implementation of energy-efficiency measures and innovative ad hoc financial instruments. Furthermore, the potential of new IT for the promotion of energy-efficiency measures was also demonstrated. Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report (see "Read more" section).