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Home, sweet (green?) home, Carouge, Geneva

Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Homeowners grabbed at the chance to get energy certificates at a bargain rate, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) says, with 15,000 energy certificates sold in only three weeks following the announcement that a certificate and annexed expert report would cost only CHF200 instead of the usual CHF1,200. The cantonal building energy certificate (CECB) establishes the energy efficiency of a building and is useful as a guide to current and future energy use.

Future CECBs will cost between CHF 400 and CHF 800 without the expert report, depending on the canton.

Building owners in the six French-speaking cantons bought 3,710 of the 15,000 CECBs. Geneva building owners bought 144 of the available certificates, Vaud 981, Valais 593, Neuchatel 893, Fribourg 905 and Jura 197.