«Your isolation for only one euro and without payment in advance»; «Last call to isolate your attic for a euro with state aid»; «The European Union isolates your attic by one euro»; «100% subsidized isolation in Spain if you meet the requirements.» They are some of the ads that have flooded social networks and search engines such as Google. The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, the companies in the isolation sector and consumer associations warn that the offers posed by these companies are unrealistic and, some of them are improperly using the energy savings certificates (CAEs). According to sources from the Ministry directed by Sara Aagesen, «after knowing the advertisements and advertising claims that hold, with little or void rigor, that thanks to the system, all the costs of isolation of the buildings in certain circumstances can be covered, several meetings have been held with the agents of the sector to ensure that all the actions susceptible to the system of social rights, consumption and agenda 2030 confirms that it is an issue on which they are working, although without specifying in which line. «We cannot give concrete information about potential complaints received in this regard or actions performed.» For the OCU this is “misleading advertising, since it does not guarantee its gratuity”. In certain cases it is directly about scams, since insulation companies or ads supplant or the ads redirect to web pages where personal data and bank information of users are requested. The Association of Isolation Installers (Isola) already warned in March of the existence of some companies that were advertising the installation of thermal insulation at zero cost based on the falls and using inappropriate official logos or images of institutions (ministries or the EU itself). «These offers can be an economic risk for the owner, since it is unlikely that they fall to cover 100% of the cost without forcing the data,» he detailed. The CAE is a system approved by the Government in 2023 that allows owners and communities of neighbors to sell their energy savings to companies after carrying out an energy efficiency action. The falls work as a title or active that can be monetized, that is, energy savings can be sold. A fall is equivalent to 1 kilowatt per hour (kWh) of energy savings. The average price received by the beneficiaries of these certificates in 2024 stood at 136 euros the MWH, according to a Banca March and created Energy. For Luis Mateo, General Director of the National Association of Insulating Material Manufacturers (Andimat), the inappropriate use of this system «can make users think that they can be isolated at almost zero cost because the investment will be paid almost entirely with the sales income of CAE.» This, he says, «is not possible for the concept of the system itself, which only covers a percentage of the investment.» A technician in the sector, who prefers to maintain anonymity and whose website has been plagiarized, states that in many cases these are companies of Francomarrochi origin who worked in France until 2021, the year in which the Government eliminated a subsidy program (Isolation à € 1) for alleged abuse and fraud. The Ministry of Ecological Transition elaborates some chips with which the savings that can be obtained with each action is calculated and defines an equivalence in number of certificates falls. However, what some of these companies could do is falsify the values of thermal transmittances. «On paper, it allows us to propose that the starting situation is that of a house with a very small isolation. When applying the isolation, the savings is very high. Another thing is that the company manages to justify that initial and final situation to certify the savings,» they say in the OCU. These technical reports must go through the filter of a verifier. «A certifying agent CAEs cannot be anyone: he must meet technical and administrative requirements and be officially registered in the Ministry of Ecological Transition to be able to certify energy savings,» explains Marta Vall-Llossera, president of the Superior Council of the Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE). Certifiers have to be accredited by the National Accreditation Entity of Spain (ENA). One of these certifiers is AENOR, which explains: “The verifier model encourages a much more efficient use of public resources, ensuring that aid is being granted to actions that effectively result in savings,” says Manuel García, an industry and energy manager of Aenor. After the starting of the system, AENOR detected some improvement points for the calculation of the savings of the chips. «They were informed of the Ministry and the competent agencies and in a coordinated manner were agile and diligently included in the evaluation process.» «The investment could end up being paid entirely by the end user,» Mateo warns. It could give the circumstance that some dossier with manipulated data ended up passing the filter, since the verification is not done in situ, since this would greatly increase the final costs. Even so, in Andimat they believe that «the system falls is robust» and that verification by third parties «guarantees its reliability.»
Rigor in measures
The Ministry for Ecological Transition claims to be watching to prevent any oversized from exceeding verification. And remember the need to reject values of unrealistic or non -justified thermal transmittances, as well as guarantee the integrity of contractual documents (invoices, agreements, savings assignments contracts), to safeguard the credibility of the system falls and avoid fraud or negligence. On its website it has published a note with a verification criterion that requires rigor in savings measures to dismiss exaggerated calculations. Most of these companies focus on offering buchardillas or bajocubierta in single -family houses. However, small-scale actions, such as those of a single-family house or a single floor, «generate very little savings and certification costs, audits and registration can overcome the benefits. It is not usually economically viable to generate falls individually. The efficient solution is the group in communities of owners,» says Vall-Lossera. The architect José Antonio Rodríguez, of IMM Management and Rehabilitation, adds: «It is very difficult with such basic actions, so these offers, a priori, sin deceptive.» The OCU has analyzed these ads. «Some refer to web pages that are not identified and that collect contact data without any warning of use and purpose and without having the option of exercising the rights in the field of personal data protection. In some cases they even use Google forms as the only website, so it could simply be influencers that will receive remuneration for each contact data that facilitate the company.» It is also common that information about the conditions of the contractual relationship is not provided, they denounce in CECU. And it continues: «According to the police, these alleged entities ask to complete a form with personal and economic data, as well as photographs of the house and access to it, in addition to the aforementioned payment of the euro more VAT.»
