New tool guides you through trillions of home renovation options

A new digital tool that can sift through more than one trillion possible home renovation combinations is being officially launched this week, offering homeowners an unprecedented way to identify the most cost-effective and sustainable upgrades for their properties.

The Renovation Explorer, developed by a team at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in collaboration with Dutch research institute TNO and Smart Twin, is designed to help homeowners identify the best renovation options for their homes in the easiest possible way. The tool's public debut takes place at a dedicated congress on the TU/e campus on Thursday, June 4.

The project was driven by Assistant Professor Lisanne Havinga, who says the tool addresses a real gap in the market. "Homeowners can lower their long-term costs by renovating their homes, but with so many renovation options, it can be an overwhelming process for many people," she said. "We want to provide homeowners with a tool to navigate these decisions."

A personalized approach to home renovation

What sets the Renovation Explorer apart from existing tools is its dynamic, personalized approach. Most current tools rely on static monthly or yearly averages and identify homes based on postcode and build year, using the average house type to make recommendations. In reality, no two homes are the same. The new tool allows users to input the exact characteristics of their home — including heating systems, household behavior, and even whether they sleep with windows open — to generate tailored recommendations.

Under the hood, the tool is powered by real physics and machine learning, built on an advanced energy-balance simulation that incorporates key principles of heat transfer. Remarkably, the machine learning model requires only around 350,000 training scenarios to accurately predict the performance of more than one trillion renovation packages — and can run on a standard laptop.

Setting a model for urban developments

The project's origins trace back to the 2018 national climate agreement negotiations in the Netherlands, when Havinga was asked how to ensure that 100,000 proposed home renovations could be both cost-effective and high quality. That question eventually led to a €3 million government-funded research program spanning four years.

The launch will also mark the release of the tool's open-source code, enabling developers to build their own implementations. The Dutch government has announced continued funding to roll the tool out on a larger scale, develop a neighborhood-level model for municipalities, and expand its capabilities to include cooling demand and energy storage technologies.

Havinga hopes the tool's impact will eventually reach far beyond the Netherlands. "I hope it helps to raise awareness among households that they can alleviate the negatives of energy crisis shocks by properly renovating their homes," she said. "My call is for everyone to be part of the efforts to bring this to the EU and further afield."