Converting Home Energy Assessments into Tangible Results

Utilities, customers, and their program implementers have all been asking the relevant question, “what will be the new normal?” When COVID-19 hit the United States, utilities scrambled to find new avenues of continuing home energy assessments. They implemented virtual audits, which offered customers insights into energy savings, but unfortunately, they found the adoption to fall a bit short of expectations. Fortunately, EFI has experience overcoming a parallel situation previously when Focus on Energy’s energy efficiency program inquired about this very same need. EFI partnered with Focus on Energy in the creation of the Simple Energy Efficiency Program, which delivered program growth and impressive results. 

How EFI and Focus on Energy increased program participation by 500+%
Focus on Energy’s purpose through the Simple Energy Efficiency Program was to help homes reduce energy usage and produce savings in the process. The map to the right displays the results of this program in 2015. Wisconsin residents were not adopting this program as the 108 utilities had hoped. However, Focus on Energy’s concerns were not of concern to EFI. EFI is known in the energy efficiency industry to enthusiastically support utilities with their home energy assessments through product fulfillment, marketing, and program design. When Focus on Energy put the Simple Energy Efficiency program in motion, EFI was well equipped and prepared to empower the residents of Wisconsin to participate throughout the state. In 2016, EFI began to restructure the way residents were able to participate and by the end of the first year, what had historically been about 15,000 participants grew to over 70,000 customers.

EFI created the marketing campaigns while working with the program administrator to determine various marketing segments and customer types. The results of this new program design speak for themselves:

Program Adoption Results

• Increased affinity & brand awareness
• Helped distribute over 300,000 energy efficiency kits to residential homes
• Drove customer satisfaction, receiving a 9.2 out of 10 in customer satisfaction rating
• Producing net annual savings of over 16,000,000 kWh and over 500,000 therms
• Rated as the most cost-effective solution after the online portal was implemented
   

Need help getting your customers involved with energy efficiency? EFI can help! Contact us at [email protected] today.