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Energy.gov Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Residential Program Guide
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Market Position & Business Model – Overview

Identify your organization's preferred market position by assessing existing market actors, gaps, competitors, and potential partners. Develop a business model that will allow you to deliver energy efficiency services.
Handbook

Evaluation & Data Collection – Overview

Develop evidence-based insights into your program’s performance through third-party process and impact evaluations. Learn how to develop effective data collection strategies and timely evaluations to identify important program achievements as well as opportunities for making program improvements.
Handbook

Marketing & Outreach – Overview

Spur consumer demand for your program's services by understanding your target audience and motivating them to act using effective messaging, marketing and outreach tactics, and attractive program offers.
Handbook

Adapt your business model to fit your external environment

To develop a successful business model, Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners found it critical to have a strong understanding of the external environment within which they operated. This included who their customers were, who their competitors and partners were, what key policies governed...
Tips for Success

Consider a diversity of funding and revenue sources and make selections based on local opportunities when planning for long-term program sustainability

In order to craft a sustainable financial model, organizations need to identify long-term sustainable revenue sources. As with the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program, grant funding can be a great way to get an effort off the ground; however, grant funding does run out, leaving the need to secure...
Tips for Success

Use compatible formats for data sharing and reporting, and work with partners to implement standard data exchange protocols

Many Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners found that it was critically important to use compatible formats for data sharing and reporting with partners. Aligning data formats and collection plans with national data formats (e.g., Home Performance XML schema (HPXML), Standard Energy...
Tips for Success

Develop data collection and evaluation plans in conjunction with program design

Many Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners found that it was important to communicate during the program design phase with organizations and individuals that will collect or supply data for the evaluation. In this way, the involved individuals and organizations understand why the data is...
Tips for Success

Establish data sharing relationships as early as possible

Though potentially challenging, establishing relationships for sharing energy consumption data is critical for evaluating program impact on energy and cost savings. Many Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners found success by approaching utilities during the program planning phase, or at...
Tips for Success

Invest in information and communications technology

Paper-based or spreadsheet-based information collection processes can be low cost to develop and easy to roll-out, but more often than not, they become cumbersome to aggregate and store the data from many sources. Many Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners found that investing in...
Tips for Success

Measure and evaluate performance at key points in the process

Measuring performance at key points in the upgrade process (e.g., assessments, conversion rates, and financing applications) has helped programs understand where their processes are working smoothly and where they are not. This information has helped them continuously improve their program design...
Tips for Success

Provide adequate time for data system development and testing

Many Better Buildings Neighborhood Program partners found that setting up their information technology (IT) systems early in the program design stage ensured that data terms and data entry procedures were consistently applied by all system users. Reaching agreement with stakeholders (e.g...
Tips for Success

Develop partnerships based on an alignment of goals, strong collaboration, and consistent communication

Programs that have developed strong and lasting partnerships have done so by identifying shared goals and seeking ways in which programs and partners can mutually benefit by advancing each other's missions. Even if partners don’t have the same goals as your program, you can still try to find ways to...
Tips for Success

Communicate with audiences at least three times; once is not enough

All residential energy efficiency programs have found that outreach needs to be repeated to connect with and remind potential participants about program offerings. As marketing gurus note, the majority of people need to be exposed to a product message at least three times (on separate occasions) to...
Tips for Success

Follow through with customers

Following up on leads that result from your marketing and outreach efforts quickly and consistently will help your program convert them from interested parties to satisfied customers. Many programs found a sizable drop-off in action if they or their contractors were not able to follow up within a...
Tips for Success

Conduct one-on-one outreach where people gather and help them take action right away

Programs that conducted one-on-one outreach found that community events provided good opportunities for the program and its partners to connect and build credibility with potential customers. Particularly successful events were ones that attracted the program’s target audience and aligned with their...
Tips for Success

Motivate action through financial incentives and time-limited offers

Incentives can be the easiest approach to overcome motivation barriers and attract customers’ and contractors’ attention, as long as the upgrade and reimbursement processes are kept simple and easy to follow. Successful programs have found incentives help entice customers to complete upgrades...
Tips for Success

Content Type

  • (-) Tips for Success (13)
  • (-) Handbook (3)

Resource Type

Program Components

  • (-) Market Position & Business Model (4)
  • Program Design & Customer Experience (10)
  • (-) Evaluation & Data Collection (7)
  • (-) Marketing & Outreach (6)
  • Financing (6)
  • Contractor Engagement & Workforce Development (7)

Program Design Phases

  • (-) Overview (16)
  • Strategy Development (25)
  • Planning (21)
  • Implementation (26)
  • Evaluation (16)

States or Territories

  • Arizona (3)
  • California (2)
  • Colorado (5)
  • Connecticut (3)
  • Florida (1)
  • Georgia (1)
  • Louisiana (2)
  • Maine (1)
  • Maryland (1)
  • Massachusetts (1)
  • Michigan (2)
  • New Hampshire (1)
  • New York (1)
  • Ohio (1)
  • Oregon (3)
  • Pennsylvania (4)
  • Texas (1)
  • Vermont (1)
  • Virginia (1)

Organizations or Programs

  • EnergySmart (4)
  • EnergyWorks (4)
  • Connecticut Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge (3)
  • Enhabit (3)
  • Energize Phoenix (2)
  • Michigan Saves (2)
  • NOLA WISE (2)
  • Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA) (2)
  • Arizona Public Service (APS) (1)
  • Austin Energy (1)
  • Be SMART (1)
  • Better Buildings Program San Jose (1)
  • DecaturWISE (1)
  • Denver Energy Challenge (1)
  • Efficiency Maine (1)
  • Garfield Clean Energy (1)
  • Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance (GCEA) (1)
  • Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP) (1)
  • Massachusetts Department Of Energy Resources (1)
  • NeighborWorks of Western Vermont (1)
  • New Hampshire Better Buildings (1)
  • New York State Energy Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) (1)
  • Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s Neighborhood Program (1)
  • Solar and Energy Loan Fund (SELF) (1)
Residential Program Guide is a resource of the U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office.
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