Search

Search Results

• 1. [Article] How Well Do Home Energy Audits Serve the Homeowner?

  Home energy audits administered by utilities and government typically provide homeowners with lists of technical upgrade recommendations intended to increase the technical energy efficiency of the house. ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: How Well Do Home Energy Audits Serve the Homeowner? Author: Ingle, Aaron, Moezzi, Mithra, Lutzenhiser, Loren, Diamond, Richard Year: 2012 Home energy audits administered by utilities and government typically provide homeowners with lists of technical upgrade recommendations intended to increase the technical energy efficiency of the house. Audits proceed with assessment of physical characteristics, subsequently processed with a computational model and transformed into a report, sometimes customized by the auditor. While the design of an energy audit reflects program and policy points of view – balancing program cost with expected program savings, educating people about the value of energy efficiency, etc. – it is crucial to consider the criteria for a good home energy audit and recommendations from homeowners’ points of view. How well do home energy audits currently meet these criteria? How well do asset-based assessments match what homeowners seem to want? We consider these questions based on a study of 286 homeowners who participated in a Seattle City Light home energy audit program. Findings suggest that there is substantial opportunity to reorient audit programs to better fit the realities of why homeowners undertake energy audits and retrofits. In the Seattle City Light program, participating homeowners found certain elements of the audit they received – interaction with professional auditors, blower door testing, and customized, specific upgrade recommendations – to be more compelling than the standardized and quantitative elements. Rather than being engaged with increasing energy efficiency, as invited by an asset perspective and asset-based efficiency scores, homeowners wanted to build better understanding of their home’s energy use and to learn how to solve specific problems, especially reflecting their household’s actual energy use practices. Title: How Well Do Home Energy Audits Serve the Homeowner? Author: Ingle, Aaron, Moezzi, Mithra, Lutzenhiser, Loren, Diamond, Richard Year: 2012 Home energy audits administered by utilities and government typically provide homeowners with lists of technical upgrade recommendations intended to increase the technical energy efficiency of the house. Audits proceed with assessment of physical characteristics, subsequently processed with a computational model and transformed into a report, sometimes customized by the auditor. While the design of an energy audit reflects program and policy points of view – balancing program cost with expected program savings, educating people about the value of energy efficiency, etc. – it is crucial to consider the criteria for a good home energy audit and recommendations from homeowners’ points of view. How well do home energy audits currently meet these criteria? How well do asset-based assessments match what homeowners seem to want? We consider these questions based on a study of 286 homeowners who participated in a Seattle City Light home energy audit program. Findings suggest that there is substantial opportunity to reorient audit programs to better fit the realities of why homeowners undertake energy audits and retrofits. In the Seattle City Light program, participating homeowners found certain elements of the audit they received – interaction with professional auditors, blower door testing, and customized, specific upgrade recommendations – to be more compelling than the standardized and quantitative elements. Rather than being engaged with increasing energy efficiency, as invited by an asset perspective and asset-based efficiency scores, homeowners wanted to build better understanding of their home’s energy use and to learn how to solve specific problems, especially reflecting their household’s actual energy use practices. Close

• 2. [Article] Behavioral Perspectives on Home Energy Audits: The Role of Auditors, Labels, Reports, and Audit Tools on Homeowner Decision-Making

  Our study focused on the perspective of homeowner decision-making in response to home energy audits, combined with attention to the quality of the recommendations that homeowners receive, as well as the ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Behavioral Perspectives on Home Energy Audits: The Role of Auditors, Labels, Reports, and Audit Tools on Homeowner Decision-Making Author: Ingle, Aaron, Moezzi, Mithra, Lutzenhiser, Loren, Hathaway, Zachary Lawrence, Lutzenhiser, Susan, Van Clock, Joe, Peters, Jane, Smith, Rebecca, Heslam, David, Diamond, Rick Year: 2012 Our study focused on the perspective of homeowner decision-making in response to home energy audits, combined with attention to the quality of the recommendations that homeowners receive, as well as the perspectives of some key industry actors on auditing and home energy labels. Unlike a program evaluation, the research was not designed to answer detailed questions about program effectiveness in terms of costs, savings, or process, nor was it designed to provide direct answers to questions of how to get people to do more audits or more retrofits. Rather it “steps back” toward a better understanding of more basic questions about what audits provide and what homeowners seem to want, for the case of one particular program that we expect has parallels to many others. In this report, we present the results of a study for the U.S. Department of Energy, applied to an existing home energy audit program and pilot offered by Seattle City Light, the electric utility for the City of Seattle. Portland State University, Research Into Action, and Earth Advantage Institute worked together with Seattle City Light and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to complete the research project. From mid-2010 to late 2011, approximately 1,350 home energy audits were completed in Seattle as part of Seattle City Light’s program. These audits, and the homeowners who received them, are the subject of our report. The research reported here was designed to advance the field’s knowledge on what homeowners want and get from home energy audits. It did so by simultaneously studying multiple dimensions of these audits, including: physical characteristics of the houses audited, the energy use estimates and upgrade recommendations these audits offered to homeowners, actual energy use data, self-reported retrofit activity and energy use behaviors, physical assessment of the quality of the retrofits undertaken, viewpoints of both auditors and realtors on various key program elements, and—centrally in tying these streams together—homeowner motivations and reactions to the audits, what they consequently changed, and what they thought about the results. These data were used to address gaps in knowledge about home energy efficiency upgrades and audits, including: Homeowner decision-making processes in planning and undertaking energy retrofits, reactions to home energy performance scores, and satisfaction with the audits performed; Differences and similarities between home energy assessment and retrofit recommendation tools; Importance of household energy behaviors relative to house-and equipment-based assessments of home energy performance and upgrade recommendations; and Industry views on the current and potential future use, and usefulness, of home energy performance ratings in general Title: Behavioral Perspectives on Home Energy Audits: The Role of Auditors, Labels, Reports, and Audit Tools on Homeowner Decision-Making Author: Ingle, Aaron, Moezzi, Mithra, Lutzenhiser, Loren, Hathaway, Zachary Lawrence, Lutzenhiser, Susan, Van Clock, Joe, Peters, Jane, Smith, Rebecca, Heslam, David, Diamond, Rick Year: 2012 Our study focused on the perspective of homeowner decision-making in response to home energy audits, combined with attention to the quality of the recommendations that homeowners receive, as well as the perspectives of some key industry actors on auditing and home energy labels. Unlike a program evaluation, the research was not designed to answer detailed questions about program effectiveness in terms of costs, savings, or process, nor was it designed to provide direct answers to questions of how to get people to do more audits or more retrofits. Rather it “steps back” toward a better understanding of more basic questions about what audits provide and what homeowners seem to want, for the case of one particular program that we expect has parallels to many others. In this report, we present the results of a study for the U.S. Department of Energy, applied to an existing home energy audit program and pilot offered by Seattle City Light, the electric utility for the City of Seattle. Portland State University, Research Into Action, and Earth Advantage Institute worked together with Seattle City Light and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to complete the research project. From mid-2010 to late 2011, approximately 1,350 home energy audits were completed in Seattle as part of Seattle City Light’s program. These audits, and the homeowners who received them, are the subject of our report. The research reported here was designed to advance the field’s knowledge on what homeowners want and get from home energy audits. It did so by simultaneously studying multiple dimensions of these audits, including: physical characteristics of the houses audited, the energy use estimates and upgrade recommendations these audits offered to homeowners, actual energy use data, self-reported retrofit activity and energy use behaviors, physical assessment of the quality of the retrofits undertaken, viewpoints of both auditors and realtors on various key program elements, and—centrally in tying these streams together—homeowner motivations and reactions to the audits, what they consequently changed, and what they thought about the results. These data were used to address gaps in knowledge about home energy efficiency upgrades and audits, including: Homeowner decision-making processes in planning and undertaking energy retrofits, reactions to home energy performance scores, and satisfaction with the audits performed; Differences and similarities between home energy assessment and retrofit recommendation tools; Importance of household energy behaviors relative to house-and equipment-based assessments of home energy performance and upgrade recommendations; and Industry views on the current and potential future use, and usefulness, of home energy performance ratings in general Close