This webcast highlights effective efforts by state and local agencies, non-profits, and utilities to bring energy efficiency and renewable energy to low-income households. It explores the topic of linking and leveraging energy efficiency and renewable energy programs for limited-income households, including the need to coordinate with other energy assistance programs. It also presents case studies of organizations that have successfully advanced connections among available programs and funding sources.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on the benefits, business case, challenges, and strategies of multifamily energy upgrades.

This webcast covers DOE's new white paper, Capturing Energy Efficiency in Residential Real Estate Transactions, which highlights how residential energy efficiency programs can help make homes' energy efficiency visible to appraisers, real estate agents, mortgage lenders, homebuyers and sellers. The webcast provides examples of programs around the U.S. that are successfully engaging the real estate community and overcoming barriers to valuing energy efficiency in the home resale process.

Real estate professionals are increasingly aware that today’s homebuyers consider heating and cooling costs, efficient appliances, and efficient lighting to be important factors in home purchase decisions. Residential energy efficiency and real estate stakeholders, however, agree that the home resale process frequently fails to account for the value of high-performance home features. If investments in energy efficiency were more accurately reflected in home resale prices, homeowners could have greater confidence that these investments would be recouped at resale, and they might make more investments in efficiency.

This presentation provides a broad overview of programmatic strategies to change behavior as a means to drive greater energy efficiency savings. Lessons learned, best practices, and examples are presented related to topics such as coordinated outreach across program partners and key product categories, as well as community based social marketing (CBSM).

The Community Power Works program in Seattle, WA uses a program dashboard to track progress against targets. This is an example dashboard from March 2015, which is updated on a monthly basis with progress toward goals for sign-ups, energy audits, home energy upgrades, and energy savings.

This technical reference manual provides detailed, comprehensive documentation of resource and non-resource savings corresponding to the Energy Efficiency Fund program and individual Conservation and Load Management (C&LM) program technologies.

This report shares the results of a research study conducted to understand the awareness and perceptions of potential consumers regarding ductless heat pumps and heat pump water heaters. The results were intended to help the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance improve messaging and marketing themes related to these products across the northwest region.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how to market energy efficiency upgrades through affiliate partners and other established institutions.

This case study profiles the winner of the 2015 Housing Innovation Awards for DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Home built in Durango, CO by Mantell-Hecathorn Builders.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on evaluation, measurement, and verification of predicted/modeled savings from home energy upgrades.

This series of 19 tip sheets is based on the experience and expertise of EPA’s Climate Showcase Communities. The tip sheets cover a wide range of topics, such as marketing and communications (effective messaging, traditional media strategies, community-based social marketing, and testimonial videos) and working with specific types of stakeholders (institutional partners, contractors, experts, utilities, early adopters, volunteers).

This tip sheet was inspired by the experiences and expertise of EPA’s Climate Showcase Communities (CSCs). It focuses on working with experts and highlights best practices and helpful resources and recommended resources for other communities interested in pursuing similar projects.

This tip sheet was inspired by the experiences and expertise of EPA’s Climate Showcase Communities (CSCs). It focuses on working with institutional partners and highlights best practices and helpful resources and recommended resources for other communities interested in pursuing similar projects.

This Multifamily Technical Reference Manuals (TRMs) provide documentation for the Trust's calculation of energy and demand savings from energy efficiency measures.

This webinar covers an Evaluation, Measurement, and Verification (EM&V) 2.0 topic about savings measurement software that provides results in real time.

This brief study shows that energy efficiency customers are more likely to install home performance upgrades if they are shown a select number of recommended options, rather than facing a choice of many options.

The Guide to Action provides in-depth information about over a dozen policies and programs that states are using to meet their energy, environmental, and economic objectives with energy efficiency, renewable energy, and combined heat and power. Each policy description is based on states’ experiences in designing and implementing policies, as documented in existing literature and shared through peer-exchange opportunities provided to states by EPA’s State Climate and Energy Program.

This webinar is the sixth (in a series of six) hosted by USDA Rural Utility Service (RUS) and focusing on the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program (EECLP). This webinar provides an overview of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Opportunities and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program. It features the New Hampshire Electric Co-op's Solar PV Program and SunShot Solar Outreach Partnership (SolarOPs). SolarOPs is a U.S. Department of Energy program designed to increase the use and integration of solar energy in communities across the US.

This literature review and benchmarking analysis focuses on electric and gas utility-implemented Conservation Improvement Programs (CIP) in Minnesota that used behavioral techniques. The objective of this effort was to provide the State of Minnesota with information necessary to make informed decisions about the design, evaluation, and claimed savings approaches for these programs.

Energy efficiency collaboratives vary greatly and are typically designed for a specific jurisdiction, making them hard to compare side by side. This guide seeks to highlight a few common elements and draw conclusions on the overall effectiveness of specific characteristics of collaboratives. This guide defines and examines four different types of collaboratives in terms of their origin, scope, decision-making method, membership, duration, available resources, and how they interact with and influence their respective commissions.

This report presents results from an analysis of asthma-related health benefits of health and home performance interventions using data collected from 49 households in Northwestern Washington State from 2006 to 2013.

Cool Choices layered an experiment atop four engagement games where they used game mechanics to identify high energy users and encourage those high energy users (along with other game participants) to participate in Focus on Energy residential programs. This research effort, called "Find and Flip," explored whether a gamification strategy could identify high energy users and then drive them to Focus on Energy programs.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on fostering behavior change in the energy efficiency market.

This case study includes a baseline assessment of "green fields" that highlight the green and energy-efficient aspects of homes in the MLS and the market for high-performance homes (HPHs) in the District of Columbia. The report also sets the stage for the upcoming release of additional green fields in the Metropolitan Regional Information System (MRIS), the local MLS in the Washington metropolitan region.

This guide provides recommended benchmarking metrics for measuring residential program performance.

This presentation focused on the Guide for Benchmarking Residential Program Progress with Examples and its step-by-step guidance for setting up an effective benchmarking process.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on standardization of effective practices across a program territory.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how to leverage HVAC upgrades into deeper home upgrades.

Information and communications technologies (ICT) can automate and transform the evaluation, measurement, and verification (EM&V) of energy efficiency programs. ICT enables the remote monitoring and sophisticated analysis of energy usage, increasing the speed and scale of many EM&V activities. This report reviews traditional EM&V practices, explores new enabling technologies including the Internet of Things and remote building analysis, and describes the application of ICT to each stage of the EM&V process. The report then projects ways forward through a number of challenges (e.g., data overload) and concludes that ICT-enabled EM&V could eventually change the design of efficiency programs and the responsibilities of program administrators, implementers, and evaluators.

Information and communications technologies (ICT) can automate and transform the evaluation, measurement, and verification (EM&V) of energy efficiency programs. ICT enables the remote monitoring and sophisticated analysis of energy usage, increasing the speed and scale of many EM&V activities. This report reviews traditional EM&V practices, explores new enabling technologies including the Internet of Things and remote building analysis, and describes the application of ICT to each stage of the EM&V process. The report then projects ways forward through a number of challenges (e.g., data overload) and concludes that ICT-enabled EM&V could eventually change the design of efficiency programs and the responsibilities of program administrators, implementers, and evaluators.

Home Performance with ENERGY STAR’s new HPXML Implementation Guide helps energy efficiency program administrators and software developers overcome fragmented data exchange by integrating HPXML (home performance extensible markup language) into their operations and products. HPXML is a set of common definitions for the attributes of home systems based on Building Performance Institute data standards and the computing language that facilitates the quick and easy transfer of home-related data between different markets.

This is a recording of a webinar from August 2015. Home Performance with ENERGY STAR hosted a panel on HPXML; the value it can bring to businesses and implementation methods. Interested organizations can use this resource to learn more about HPXML and its potential benefits.

Because of its potential to reduce customers’ first costs and leverage private funds, financing has been increasing in importance as a strategy for facilitating energy upgrades as program administrators seek to meet ambitious goals in a shifting energy efficiency landscape. This paper evaluates the experience of BBNP grantees to identify how programs can most effectively integrate loan offerings into their broader efforts to promote energy efficiency upgrades. The paper also identifies best practices from grantees’ experience related to integrating financing into program outreach and trade ally interactions.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on energy efficiency programs to retrofit buildings in the multifamily, affordable housing sector.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on approaches to incorporate weather data into energy savings calculations.

This report presents smart meter data to analyze the ramp-up, dependability, and short-term persistence of savings in Home Energy Reports (HERs), one type of a behavior-based energy efficiency program.

The Consortium for Energy Efficiency has collected information from its membership for each of the past four years on the behavior-based programs currently underway and how these programs are being evaluated. This presentation describes the annual data collection effort and highlight the key findings of this research to date. Results discussed will consider the social science knowledge most commonly incorporated into the programs captured, as well as methods used for program evaluation and overarching lessons learned from the program administrator community.

This report discusses how low income communities can be transformed through energy efficiency. Many of our fellow citizens face energy costs that are excessive compared with their overall incomes, yet they cannot afford to invest in the energy efficiency measures that would reduce their energy cost burden. Families nationwide are often forced to choose between necessities such as food or medications and paying their energy bills to heat and cool their homes. Private and public resources are available to help Americans, but these resources reach only a small percentage of underserved households.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on the advantages, challenges, and effective creation and management of statewide energy efficiency alliances.

This online guide provides step-by-step guidance and resources for local governments to plan, implement, and evaluate climate, energy, and sustainability projects and programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change impacts. It captures lessons learned and effective strategies used by local governments, breaks down program implementation into concrete steps, and curates resources to help local governments find the information they need. The framework was developed with extensive input from local government stakeholders, including EPA’s Climate Showcase Communities.

This guide was developed for local climate and clean energy (i.e., energy efficiency, renewable energy, and combined heat and power) program implementers to help create or transition to program designs that are viable over the long term. The guide draws on the experience and examples of EPA’s Climate Showcase Communities as they developed innovative models for programs that could be financially viable over the long term and replicated in other communities.

This factsheet highlights the benefits of increasing the energy efficiency of multifamily housing, which saves energy, improves residents' health and comfort. and maintains reasonable rents. This helps families, communities, and affordable building owners.

The MF HERCC Recommendations Report 2015 Update expands the 2011 publication, and delivers explicit and refined recommendations for multifamily energy efficiency program administrators and implementers.

This Technical Reference Manual (TRM) documents common assumptions for approximately thirty prescriptive electric energy efficiency measures savings.

This paper examines the potential for new jobs in designing and implementing energy efficiency improvements in multifamily buildings. It discusses the cost savings and other benefits that accrue to businesses that own and manage multifamily housing, their tenants, and utilities. The paper reviews the factors that created this particular opportunity in multifamily housing and how studies of energy efficiencyÕs potential can help quantify the available efficiency opportunity in a given state. Finally, it discusses how to use cost-effectiveness tests to ensure that energy efficiency policies and programs are a wise use of taxpayer funds.

The Recovery Act Evaluation was performed to provide information on the costs and benefits of WAP services in different parts of the country and for different types of housing. It was also performed to provide a comprehensive picture of the Program (including the characteristics of the clients, housing stock, and service providers), assess program administration, document experiences during the Recovery Act period, and conduct several special studies.

The Retrospective Evaluation was performed to provide information on the costs and benefits of WAP services in different parts of the country and for different types of housing. It was also performed to provide a comprehensive picture of the Program (including the characteristics of the clients, housing stock, and service providers) and assess program administration.

This study examined consumer awareness and opinions concerning the New Jersey Clean Energy Program (NJCEP). Research areas included New Jersey homeowners' awareness of NJCEP, an assessment of attitudes towards energy efficiency, the main benefits associated with energy efficiency, key drivers associated with purchasing energy efficient products, the best methods for increasing consumers awareness of NJCEP, and obstacles to implementing energy efficiency measures in the home.

This page contains annual and monthly update reports of the Green Jobs-Green New York program.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on an overview of the Building America Technology to Market Roadmaps.

The purpose of this report is to demonstrate the potential for HEMS as an evolving avenue to deeper residential energy savings, and it explains, in detail, the variations and characteristics of HEMS; what the market is and who the major market players are; what the major barriers to implementation look like; and finally, it attempts to outline potential program solutions with HEMS at the core of the strategy.

Home Performance (HP) XML is transforming the way home energy upgrade programs collect and transfer information from one software system to another, leading to improved contractor satisfaction, lower administrative costs, and technological advancements in the home performance industry. This presentation provides an overview of HPXML and its benefits, and discuss how the data standard is facilitating technological and process improvements among home energy upgrade programs and software developers in the United States.

This study was commissioned to estimate the potential energy savings from the implementation of efficiency measures in affordable multifamily housing in nine states -- Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The analysis includes savings for electricity, natural gas, and fuel oil over a 20-year period, 2015 to 2034.

This report documents the significant economic and energy savings potential from making multifamily affordable housing more energy-efficient. The study identifies the maximum achievable potential savings and benefits that can be captured over the 20-year period from 2015-2034 in the multifamily affordable housing sector. Based on the data gathered from a sample of states across the country, the report estimates that energy efficiency programs in multifamily affordable housing could cut electricity usage by as much as 32 percent and natural gas by 24 percent. The study includes specific findings for Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

This program design guide identifies 12 best practices for policymakers, regulators, and program administrators to help building owners invest to increase the energy efficiency of multifamily affordable housing.

This guide identifies 12 best practices for policymakers, regulators, and program administrators to help building owners invest to increase the energy efficiency of multifamily affordable housing.

This guide is a collection of 19 practical strategies for building owners to make their properties more resilient against the effects of extreme weather events. It draws on advice from over 50 experts in the field of resilience as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). In addition, the manual offers guidance on determining a propertyÕs vulnerability to various hazards, finding which strategies - including multifamily building envelope efficiency strategies - are relevant to a particular building, and getting started with a resilience plan.

The benefits of energy efficiency extend beyond energy savings. Homes, commercial buildings, and industrial facilities gain comfort, health, and safety benefits from energy efficiency programs. Additional benefits for businesses include savings on maintenance, materials, and the costs of regulatory compliance. On the supply side, electric utilities enjoy reduced system costs. Focusing on the residential, business, and utility sectors, this report examines each of these multiple benefits, their role in program marketing, and current best practices for including them in cost-effectiveness testing.

The benefits of energy efficiency extend beyond energy savings. Homes, commercial buildings, and industrial facilities gain comfort, health, and safety benefits from energy efficiency programs. Additional benefits for businesses include savings on maintenance, materials, and the costs of regulatory compliance. On the supply side, electric utilities enjoy reduced system costs. Focusing on the residential, business, and utility sectors, this report examines each of these multiple benefits, their role in program marketing, and current best practices for including them in cost-effectiveness testing.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on approaches to improve and sustain quality customer service for residential energy efficiency work.

High energy users in single-family homes present the greatest opportunities for energy and cost savings, yet relatively little is known about what is happening in these homes or how energy efficiency and utility programs can engage these consumers. In this on-demand webcast, hear the results of a groundbreaking field study of 100 high-consumption homes in Minnesota. The webcast will discuss possible causes and the technical and behavioral opportunities to reduce usage. Also, it will introduce the households studied to provide a holistic introduction to this utility customer group.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on evaluating residential energy efficiency program idea pitches from three different organizations.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on three programs that would engage homeowners in energy efficiency programs.

Residential multi-family properties represent not only a significant share of the housing stock in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region, but a significant opportunity to capture energy efficiency savings through cost-effective retrofit measures. The nature of the multi-family housing stock Ð and, in particular, the small multi-family sector Ð creates a unique set of challenges. This overview page outlines the market barriers and challenges faced by small multi-family properties and offers recommendations for policymakers and other stakeholders to make the multi-family sector a key outreach sector target, both in terms of policies and program strategies.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on the challenges, requirements and opportunities to advance staged upgrades in the home upgrade market.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how to involve homeowners in staged energy efficiency upgrades and what information is appropriate to share with them at each stage.

EPA released the updated State and Local Guide to U.S. EPA Climate and Energy Program Resources, a guide designed for state and local government staff that describes EPA programs and resources that can help them develop or expand their own energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives or meet regulatory requirements.

A number of states are beginning to recognize Demand Reduction Induced Price Effects (DRIPE) as a real, quantifiable benefit of energy efficiency and demand response programs. DRIPE is a measurement of the value of demand reductions in terms of the decrease in wholesale energy prices, resulting in lower total expenditures on electricity or natural gas across a given grid. This paper reviews the existing knowledge and experience from select U.S. states regarding DRIPE (including New York and Ohio), and the potential for expanded application of the concept of DRIPE by regulators.

The State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program (SEEARP) reports database includes rebate reports (xls) and summary factsheets (pdf) from states and territories that participated in SEEARP. The successes and challenges of SEEARP provide valuable lessons for designing and running a consumer-focused appliance rebate program.

Program Design Lessons Learned (Volume 1) draws on the insights DOE gathered from its more than 4 years of administering State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program (SEEARP) and analyzing the nearly 1.8 million rebates and the associated reporting from the 56 state and territory programs.

Program Results (Volume 2) includes program impacts reports summarizing individual state and overall results of the State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program (SEEARP)

New advanced Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) are pouring into the marketplace and are stimulating new thinking and a shift in the energy efficiency EM&V paradigm. These emerging technologies, including advanced data collection and analytic tools, are purported to provide timely analytics on program results and efficacy. This report reviews how new data analytic tools serve to help identify savings opportunities and engaging customers in programs like never before, and explores the potential for advanced data collection (e.g. AMI, smart meters) and data analytics to improve and streamline the evaluation process.

This presentation provides an overview of the CNT Energy and National Home Performance Council white paper "Unlocking the Value of an Energy Efficient Home: A Blueprint to Make Energy Efficiency Improvements Visible in the Real Estate Market." It covers making information about energy efficiency improvements visible to home buyers and others involved in a home sale transaction.

This article discusses the importance and value of evaluating energy efficiency financing programs.

This study documents the market valuation associated with the predominant green and energy efficiency home certifications used in the Northwest. Regional markets with a track record of including green building and energy efficiency information in MLS databases have lacked a recent, thorough, locally relevant analysis of the potential value of “higher performing” homes in current market conditions. Real property appraisers require a reliable, localized, granular analysis they can use in their home valuation calculations. The analysis contained in this report addresses this identified market need.

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.

This webcast discusses the value of energy efficiency in the real estate market.

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 summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how energy efficiency initiatives relate to real estate marketing.

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.

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 summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on combining solar and home performance energy efficiency.

Low-income energy efficiency programs provide financially vulnerable utility customers with important energy savings. To date, low-income programs have faced challenges in driving participation -- fueling myths that suggest low-income populations are difficult to reach. This paper explores these myths in turn.

This paper describes existing barriers to integrating energy efficiency data into real estate markets, and illustrates recent efforts to address them. National cross-industry collaborations have resulted in standard data collection and transfer tools that allow home performance data to be shared across industries. Real estate markets in some regions have begun including these data into multiple listing services (MLS), making them visible during real estate transactions.

This report details findings from the evaluation of the Colorado energy efficiency financing program.

This webcast covers a report that is a comparative analysis of utility-run behavior programs, which lays the groundwork for further program development by developing a classification scheme, or taxonomy, that sorts programs into discrete categories.

This fact sheet outlines the opportunities and challenges to be considered in expanding energy efficiency in the affordable multifamily housing sector. Making affordable rental housing more energy efficient is a cost-effective way to reduce energy consumption, maintain housing affordability, create healthier and more comfortable living environments for moderate- and low income families, and reduce pollution.

This tool lets non-experts evaluate county-level emissions displaced at electric power plants by energy efficiency and renewable energy policies and programs.

This webcast explores residential behavior-based energy efficiency programs and provides data to support issues and recommendations.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on Better Buildings Residential Network members reporting upgrades and benefits.

This resource provides best practices and highlights case studies for how utilities, policymakers, building managers, and community stakeholders can improve access to energy usage data while working towards the goal of improving efficiency in their communities.

This resource provides best practices and highlights case studies for how utilities, policymakers, building managers, and community stakeholders can improve access to energy usage data while working towards the goal of improving efficiency in their communities.

This document summarizes top takeaways shared by Better Buildings Residential Network members on Peer Exchange Calls, from tips to collaborating with utilities to cost-effective rebate models.

This Better Buildings Residential Network Partnerships Toolkit includes templates, tools, guides, and examples to help energy efficiency organizations engage in partnerships that leverage resources and strengthen their programs.

The Better Buildings Residential Network hosts a series of Peer Exchange Calls for members to discuss similar needs and challenges, and to collectively identify effective strategies and useful resources. This document provides a sample of lessons learned shared by members during Peer Exchange Calls held in fall 2014.

This U.S. Department of Energy Focus Series  highlights the BetterBuildings for Michigan program’s community readiness assessment tool.

List of building energy software packages, some of which are available for free or a small fee.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on how a residential energy efficiency program can work with, for or as utilities.

This summary from a Better Buildings Residential Network peer exchange call focused on the benefits and disadvantages of combining solar and home performance goals simultaneously.