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Energy Impact Illinois (EI2) conducted 1,600 phone surveys of mid- to high-income households. Its aim was to test program messaging and gauge attitudes toward home improvements and energy efficiency upgrades. The surveys provided a number of insights on the target audience's decision process.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on changing an organization's home performance business model and expanding the services offered.
This webcast provides information on why outreach is important for program success and how programs can promote their efforts.
An assembly of all the key elements that went into the design and delivery of STEP -- formerly STEP-UP, a University Park, Maryland, Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partner.
Rather than selecting from two or three fixed models, a successful clean energy finance program will require a sponsor to make a number of design decisions, based on resources available and the needs of the community served. This webinar outlines these key areas for consideration (including potential program sponsors, institutional structure, and potential sources of program revenue) and examples of how organizations across the country have blended design decisions into successful programs.
The Better Buildings Neighborhood Program featured 41 competitively selected grantees that developed sustainable energy efficiency upgrade programs across the U.S. from 2010-14. This presentation covers what worked and what didn’t, and key success factors identified by an independent evaluation.
This on-demand webinar discusses what residential customers in Wisconsin, the Midwest, and the nation have to say about energy topics. Learn about the Energy Center of Wisconsin's (now Seventhwave's) research on consumer perceptions and actions concerning their energy use at home based on the 2011 Midwest Energy Survey.
This peer exchange call summary focused on tracking and using data to support revenue streams.
This video provides an overview of training a local workforce to meet program needs, including meeting the needs of local contractors for new hires.
This article discusses alternative formats for training students on building science, energy assessments, and energy efficiency upgrade installation. These include using videos instead of class lectures, maximizing hands-on activities, using social learning, and learning from games.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on strategies for contractor training.
Presentation that provides insights from a utility executive on how energy efficiency programs can effectively partner with utilities.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on trends in contractor conversion rates.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on introducing and building interest in multi-family energy efficiency.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how energy efficiency initiatives relate to real estate marketing.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on working with the real estate sector to promote and drive demand for energy efficiency.
This report describes ACEEE's Deep South Ethnographic Project, which aimed to answer an overarching question: are end-users of energy in the Southeastern states interested in energy efficiency? This report includes the demographics of ACEEE's informants and responses to a set of questions about energy usage, bills, and money. The report also includes individual case studies from five different sites.
Through its target audience research, Rutland, Vermont's NeighborWorks H.E.A.T. Squad learned that neighbors are the most trusted messengers of energy efficiency upgrade information, rather than governments or utilities.
This presentation highlights key plan elements that helped a Denver energy efficiency program reorient toward success.
This report discusses the five standard tests used to assess the cost-effectiveness of energy efficiency, how states use the tests, and how the tests can determine the cost-effectiveness of efficiency measures.
Presentation aimed at program administrators that highlights the elements of an income statement, methods for forecasting costs and revenues, the importance of performance measurement, and potential revenue streams.
In this video interview segment, Will Ranes of RePower Kitsap discusses the importance of understanding your market, including being able to speak the language of utilities and other key players.
In this video interview segment, Emily Levin of Vermont Energy Investment Corporation shares the importance of market research.
This report provides a set of model protocols for determining energy and demand savings that result from specific energy efficiency measures or programs. The methods described are among the most commonly used approaches in the energy efficiency industry for certain measures or programs; they draw from the existing body of research and best practices for energy efficiency evaluation, measurement, and verification (EM&V).
This peer exchange call summary focused on unique fee-for-service revenues as related to program sustainability.
This paper establishes the size of the potential retrofit market in the United States, and examines the emergence of new financing models that offer the promise of overcoming historical barriers to energy efficiency.
With so much to gain, how can we optimize low-income energy efficiency programs to maximize the benefits for financially vulnerable citizens, as well as program implementers and the broader population of ratepayers? This paper shares four important lessons for engaging low-income customers based on Opower’s experience in partnering with utilities to serve the low-income population.
This paper describes the stakes and stakeholders involved in greening the MLS systems, analyzes the challenges involved, and summarizes what the green building stakeholder community can learn from a collaborative approach to greening MLS systems. This discussion concludes with a proposed framework for replicating collaborative stakeholder approaches, and suggests we are close to a breakthrough where states can now truly draw from the precedents to implement changes with speed and to scale.
This white paper provides energy efficiency program sponsors and other stakeholders in the home performance industry with methods to document efficiency improvements and incorporate them into the real estate value chain. Making information about energy efficiency improvements visible to home buyers and others involved in a home sale transaction will play a crucial role in ensuring that improvements are fairly valued at the time an existing home is sold.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on new and updated revenue strategies.
This is a Tip for Success
This presentation explores the community-based social marketing aspects of RePower Bainbridge and includes insights on knowing your audience, market barriers, and leverage opportunities.
Highlights the EcoHouse Project Loan Program, which provides fixed interest rate loans as a tool for enabling energy improvements among households that are otherwise unlikely to be able to access affordable financing at market rates.
This presentation covers the importance of collecting and evaluating program data, including data related to marketing efforts.
EnergySmart Colorado uses surveys and a customer database to get feedback from homeowners that helps fine-tune program services and operations.
As part of its "intentional learning" process, Charleston WISE collects information from homeowners that helps the program systematically test assumptions and implement continuous improvement.
Applying well documented stipulated (deemed) values is a common practice for determining the savings from energy efficiency projects and programs and the databases where such deemed values are cataloged are called Technical Reference Manuals (TRMs). This webcast introduces the use of deemed savings, information on setting up and updating TRMs, lessons learned, and resources for state officials. As examples, speakers discuss the content and development processes used for the Northwest regional TRM and the Iowa state TRM.
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 peer exchange call summary focused on the challenges, advantages and disadvantages of using a home scoring system.
This report describes how utility planning processes that allow demand-side resources to compete with supply-side resources can promote cost-effective energy efficiency.
This webcast reviews the SEE Action report that describes how utility planning processes that allow demand-side resources to compete with supply-side resources can promote cost-effective energy efficiency.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how loan performance data is tracked and analyzed, and what the data shows.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how to use web and mobile applications to generate and increase customer demand.
This peer exchange call summary focused on leveraging effective partnerships for multi-family and low-income outreach and service delivery.
Case study highlighting San Diego's use of QECBs to finance a city lighting upgrade.
Case study highlighting Saint Louis County, MO's use of QECBs to fund a residential energy efficiency loan program.
Case study highlighting Philadelphia's use of QECBs to finance energy efficiency upgrades for City buildings.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on using social media for long-term branding and marketing.
This webinar presented ways various programs use social media tools to enhance and promote their energy programs among their communities.
Template from the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program for collecting customer usage data from utilities.
This map shows how accessible U.S. electric utility company electricity use data is for both residential and commercial customers. The map is updated regularly based on responses received to date.
This document provides supplemental instructions for requesting, processing, and delivering electric and natural gas usage histories as required by the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program.
This advisory addresses the most prominent appraisal issues associated with residential properties exhibiting green features and uses the terms "green" and "high performance" loosely. The structure of this document generally follows the real estate appraisal process and workflow.
This webcast discusses the value of energy efficiency in the real estate market.
This is the first study to provide statistical evidence that, holding other factors constant, a green label on a single-family home in California provides a market premium compared to a comparable home without the label. The research also indicates that the price premium is influenced by local climate and environmental ideology. To reach these conclusions, researchers conducted an economic analysis of 1.6 million homes sold in California between 2007 and 2012, controlling for other variables known to influence home prices in order to isolate the added value of green home labels.
This webinar focused on energy efficiency and sustainability in the appraisal and valuation industries. Colliers International explained how they have adapted their processes to ensure that they realize the full value of energy efficiency and sustainability upgrades. Inspyrod discussed various techniques and data challenges that might be encountered during the valuation process. Sustainable Values provided an introduction and overview to the recently launched Energy Matters! training course that teaches appraisers how to incorporate energy and sustainability metrics into their property valuation.
This article discusses valuing high performance houses in the appraisal process.
Among the many benefits ascribed to energy efficiency is the fact that it can help create jobs. Although this is often used to motivate investments in efficiency programs, verifying job creation benefits is more complicated than it might seem at first. This paper identifies some of the issues that contribute to a lack of consistency in attempts to verify efficiency-related job creation. It then proposes an analytically rigorous and tractable framework for program evaluators to use in future assessments.
Instructional step-by-step guide for visiting a home to discuss and install energy efficiency measures.
This radio interview highlights how the NeighborWorks program in Vermont is raising awareness of home energy efficiency measures among residents through neighbor-to-neighbor outreach.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on types of incentives.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how to assess, initiate and sustain partnerships.
Developed as part of the Residential Building Stock Assessment (RBSA), this report provides overall housing utility and energy statistics for Washington, and details the type and efficiency of various components such as windows, insulation, appliances and type of heating fuel used in homes with each region of the state.
These award winning videos show the benefits of residential energy efficiency.
This presentation explains the importance of data collection and analysis for residential energy efficiency programs, common challenges related to data collection, and best practices for effective data collection and use.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on ideas for future peer exchange calls.
Homebuyers are not only increasingly interested in high-performance homes, or homes incorporating green features, but they are also willing to pay more for them. This report finds that high-performance homes marketed with green features (such as a solar photovoltaic array or LEED certification) sell for a mean premium of 3.46 percent compared to homes without green features.
This report presents results, recommendations, and case studies of energy efficiency financing programs.
This article presents the results of a household survey that showed many homeowners have not had an energy audit, and many of those who have, have not followed through with recommended upgrades.
This peer exchange call summary focused on available program interest rates and how to lower those rates.
An overview of tools and approaches used to transform the energy efficiency market in Chicago.
Presentation on the organization, funding structure, and market focus of the Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance.
This is a Tip for Success
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on changes and trends in the market for home energy upgrades.
This report identifies and discusses factors that should be considered in evaluating model choices for administering and implementing ratepayer funded energy efficiency programs.
This peer exchange call summary focused on the different types of evaluation methods for residential and commercial programs.
This article and recruiting presentation highlights reasons why it makes sense for an HVAC contractor to move into home performance, and provides program staff with key touch points to consider in considering potential contractor partners.
This webcast reports on the energy efficiency services sector workforce size, expectations for growth, and training needs and features a case studies from Efficiency Vermont and Efficiency Maine.
This peer exchange call summary focused on establishing the challenges, strategies and key topics related to the workforce for future peer exchange calls.
This peer exchange call summary focused on assisting contractors with working capital and the coordination of financing strategies.
Presentation describing how Clean Energy Works Oregon (now Enhabit) works with financial partners.
This peer exchange call summary focused on strategies, challenges and opportunities in working with condominium owners and associations.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on working with smaller municipal and publicly owned facilities.
This peer exchange call summary focused on leveraging home inspectors and others in the real estate transaction processes.
This peer exchange call summary focused on the strategies, challenges and key interaction points with the real estate sector.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on bringing energy efficiency programs to schools.
This peer exchange call summary focused on establishing the challenges, strategies and key topics related to working with utilities for future peer exchange calls.
This peer exchange call summary focused on integrating income-qualified programs into neighborhood sweeps.
This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on combining solar and home performance energy efficiency.
This blog post outlines basic needs for a successful marketing program: a plan; a budget; and to launch, track, evaluate, adjust, repeat.