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This Guide is designed to help state and local policymakers to take full advantage of new policy developments by providing them with a comprehensive set of tools to support launching or accelerating residential energy efficiency programs. The Guide focuses on four categories of policies that have proven particularly effective in providing a framework within which residential energy efficiency programs can thrive: incentives and financing, making the value of energy efficiency visible in the real estate market, data access and standardization, and supporting utility system procurement of energy efficiency.
The intent of the Handbook is to: Encourage energy efficiency design in new construction as well as in acquisition/rehab projects; Showcase the funding sources, programs, incentives, and assistance available to further lower investments in energy efficiency; Overcome owner-developers perception that achieving large energy savings is usually too expensive, time consuming or difficult; Demonstrate design concepts, processes, and practices that will help to minimize the costs of high performance buildings; Highlight the non-energy benefits associated with high performance buildings; Dispel the myth that cheaply built homes are affordable to operate in terms of utility costs; Emphasize that energy efficiency lowers utility bills, thereby enhancing home affordability; Stress that a home that just complies with Title 24 is the least efficient home you can legally build in California.
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This report describes the effects of utility spending on efficiency programs, how those effects could constitute barriers to investment in energy efficiency, and how policy mechanisms can reduce these barriers.
Highlights a Clean Energy Works Oregon (now Enhabit) program that provides outreach, education, incentives, and low interest, on-bill financing. Using alternative underwriting practices, Clean Energy Works Oregon (now Enhabit) has achieved a rejection rate of just 10% while also maintaining a low loan default rate.
This publication summarizes some of the incentives offered by Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners.
The Better Buildings Residential Network Designing Incentives Toolkit can help residential energy efficiency programs design incentives that motivate potential customers to act by lowering the risk, decreasing the cost, or offering additional benefits with home energy upgrades. This toolkit provides easy access to various case studies, presentations, and tips related to incentive design.
A case study featuring GTECH (Growth Through Energy and Community Health) Strategies, a nonprofit implementing an innovative new initiative called the Healthy Homes Incentive Program (HHIP), which promotes home energy upgrades to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, residents as a way to increase a home’s indoor air quality while saving energy and money.
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This presentation describes strategies for outreach to energy contractors and auditors, including contractor incentives.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on shared funding arrangements with contractors.
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This report summarizes the issues and approaches involved in motivating customers to reduce the total energy they consume through energy prices and rate design.
This report summarizes the approaches used by energy efficiency program administrators when assessing the range of financial and other incentives to be used in energy efficiency programs.
The Database for Incentives and Joint Marketing Exchange (DIME) is an online, searchable tool to help manufacturers and retailers identify incentive and marketing opportunities for promoting ENERGY STAR certified products, and to enable all partners to coordinate with the appropriate contact from other partner organizations on promotional opportunities.
This webcast covers information about designing effective incentives to drive residential retrofit program participation.
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This database provides comprehensive information on state, federal, local, and utility incentives and policies that are in place to support renewable energy and energy efficiency.
This presentation provides lessons to ensure effective incentive structures.
Presentation on how Michigan Saves realigned its incentives to encourage more projects with significant energy savings potential.
Using the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) free Home Energy Score, home inspectors can provide a miles-per-gallon type rating to their clients. By offering the rating and accompanying recommendations for efficiency improvements, home inspectors can help clients become eligible for mortgage incentives from FHA.
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This report is the first comparative analysis of utility-run behavior programs. It lays the groundwork for further program development by developing a classification scheme, or taxonomy, that sorts programs into discrete categories. This study counted 281 such programs, many with multiple iterations, offered by 114 energy providers and third parties between 2008 and 2013. After sorting programs by distinguishing features such as delivery channel and incentive type, the study arrived at 20 major program categories grouped in three large families: Cognition Programs, Calculus Programs, and Social Interaction Programs.
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This presentation from Efficiency Maine shows early adopters and higher income residents tend to take advantage of large incentives, but smaller incentives may be a way to engage a broader range of income levels.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on combining energy and health-related services.
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This presentation provides an overview of New Jersey Clean Energy's approach to contractor engagement, including contractor participation requirements, procedures for quality assurance and quality control, production incentives, training procedures, and an online contractor portal.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) developed this manual for use by contractors participating in their New York Home Performance with ENERGY STAR (HPwES) program. The manual is intended to help contractors understand and navigate the HPwES program. It provides important information about HPwES program rules, opportunities, incentives, and forms. The manual is an example of a comprehensive contractor handbook in which programs will find many useful examples of forms, procedures, and other resources.
Two visual flow charts, one that illustrates the process starting with customer interest to final incentive payment, and another that illustrates the program's quality assurance process.
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This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on what residential energy efficient programs and strategies worked well in rural populations.
A pro forma is a tool of forecasting the impact that adjustments to a business model can have on future financials, using a set of assumptions and inputs. In the residential energy efficiency industry, programs can use pro forma tools to forecast the impact that marketing campaigns, incentive re-structuring, or other program changes will have on the program budget and results. Example assumptions include the number of homeowner registrations that a set of marketing activities generate in a year, average assessment to upgrade conversion rate, and average incentive per project. By applying assumptions such as these, a pro forma tool can also help your program determine how effective various strategies are at achieving program goals and objectives. Program administrators can help contractors by supporting them with their own business pro forma. To help you get started, here are a few useful resources: the National Home Performance Council developed a presentation on their Integrated Pro Forma Project; for an example program pro forma, see the presentation by Virginia’s Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP-VA); the National Home Performance Council also developed the Contractor Pro Forma Tool.
Residential energy efficiency programs striving to improve conversion rates from customer interest to completed upgrades have realized that contractors are typically the primary link between customers and their programs. Many successful programs have empowered contractors to promote program services through sales training and co-marketing. A comprehensive evaluation of over 140 programs across the United States found that successful programs have contractors who are skilled at helping...
Piquing customers’ interest in an energy-efficient home is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to encouraging upgrades. Many programs struggle to reach their upgrade goals because they allow initially excited customers to lose interest. By incentivizing specific actions for homeowners to take, however, program administrators can motivate customers to undertake upgrades. Successful residential energy efficiency programs have found that incentivizing specific actions or energy...
Once home energy upgrades are underway, energy efficiency programs want to avoid call-backs and enhance their reputation. Because the quality of work that affiliated contractors conduct in customers’ homes reflects on the whole program, it’s important to ensure quality work; however, verifying a consistent level of quality can be challenging. Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners and Home Performance with ENERGY STAR Sponsors have found that having a clear process for quality...
The upfront cost of an energy upgrade can derail homeowners interested in home performance improvements. One program strategy for making projects more affordable is to offer financing; however, complicated loan application and approval processes can cause delays. Streamlining the loan application process is an effective way to remove this process barrier. By reducing the number of requirements that homeowners must meet to secure a loan, and by accelerating loan application processing,...
Financing allows homeowners to pay for energy improvements over time and invest in higher-cost upgrades than they might be able to afford without it. Some programs offer tiered financing or rebates to encourage upgrades with deeper savings, with terms that grow more favorable as more energy saving measures are pursued. Tiered financing can encourage customers to pursue more ambitious projects.Whatever financing options you offer, it is important to work with local lenders in your community...
Financial incentives—from rebates to lower interest rates—can help residential energy efficiency programs attract customers’ attention. Deadlines can create a sense of urgency and motivate homeowners to action on home energy upgrades. Many programs successfully established time limits on financial incentives and saw participation dramatically increase. ...
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This presentation provides an overview of PSE&G's Multifamily Housing Program, highlighting drivers, incentive structure, results, and lessons learned.
This case study describes Efficiency Maine's Home Energy Savings Program (HESP), one of the few large residential energy efficiency programs that has attempted to navigate the transition from rebate-focused offerings to financing focused offerings that better align with its limited budget.
This case study discusses Michigan's work to identify the right mix of incentives.
This case study shares how Clean Energy Works Oregon (now Enhabit) used performance-based incentives, limited-time bonus rebates, early financing approvals, and seasonal advantages to implement financing tools that broaden its program reach and increase home upgrade completions.
This report summarizes ongoing and recent policy developments that support utility investments in energy efficiency, including program cost recovery, fixed cost recovery, and performance incentives for electric utilities on a state-by-state basis.
This report provides comprehensive information on state, federal, local, and utility incentives and policies that are in place to support renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Find out how JEA successfully increased interest in its low-interest loan program beyond a short-term incentive.
This peer exchange call summary focused on strategies and challenges of working with rental property owners and tenants on multifamily upgrades.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on challenges and strategies related to split incentives for tenants and landlords.
This peer exchange call summary focused on developing rebate/incentive programs to generate a demand for sustainable programs and products.
This presentation highlights research from U.S. Green Data showing that it is important to pique consumers' interest with incentives, but that their effectiveness can be maximized by making them simple, focusing on people "ready to purchase," and educating consumers about the value of energy efficiency.
This presentation provides background information on energy efficiency financing barriers and opportunities. These barriers may include lack of confidence in energy savings, renter/owner split incentives, long paybacks, and high up-front costs. The presentation also includes five areas of opportunity for SEE Action Financing Solutions Working Group activities.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on types of incentives.