Increasing Homeowner Demand for Energy Efficiency Retrofits: Recommendations for the North Carolina Building Performance Association

Abstract

With rising concern aimed at energy consumption and its environmental impacts, efforts are being made to conserve energy across the United States. Nearly half of all domestic energy use is dedicated to homes and buildings. Despite significant strides by the homebuilding industry to design new energy efficient structures, a significant portion of the current housing stock includes inefficient, poor-performing homes. The North Carolina Building Performance Association (NCBPA) tasked us with identifying the barriers preventing homeowners from investing in home energy retrofits and offering pertinent recommendations to address these roadblocks. Through an exhaustive review of current literature and key insight from industry leaders, we distilled the many barriers into four areas: consumer education, home valuation, financing, and marketing. Our recommendations include building-out NCBPA consumer education website, hiring of a full-time data manager to create an inventory focused on capturing metrics surrounding home valuation, developing a conjoint marketing plan to target specific audiences, and continuing to push for commercial PACE and on-bill financing in North Carolina.