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Comment by Gigachad | Hacker News Reader

Free markets work best when information is available. One option would be to have all rentals require energy efficiency testing with a score being published on all rental listings. That way renters are able to compare properties and factor in this in to their choice.

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This actually exists in Germany (Energieausweis or energy certificate), see e.g. https://www.howtogermany.com/pages/energycertificate.html

Free markets can't "work" to solve these kinds of coordination problems unless NP=P, because taking information into account is an NP-hard problem.

This kind of approach has already worked for almost every product category. Your fridge has an energy rating sticker on it because it help you select the least energy using models and in turn incentivizes manufacturers to care about efficiency since consumers care and can now see.

Currently as a renter, if you see a few properties online, you have no feasible way to factor energy usage in to your decision making so landlords have no reason to factor it in since it won't prioritize their property to renters.

The power company could publish this data. I was able to get a flat rate quote on a property that I didn't live in yet using an online tool from Georgia power. It's basically the previous year energy cost divided by 12 and a 5-20% markup depending on past annual variations. It doesn't exactly equal efficiency but I knew what I could pay for an entire year of power.

You do not have to find optimal solutions to find good ones.

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