Reducing the Cost of Home Energy Upgrades in the US: An Industry Survey

Decarbonizing the US residential building stock requires a substantial acceleration in home energy
upgrades. Numerous barriers exist to scaling adoption of efficient and electric building technologies, but
foremost among these is their high upfront costs. Reducing these is thus a top priority for accelerating
decarbonization of existing homes in the US. This study uses an industry survey delivered to a sample of
home energy professionals to examine promising cost reduction strategies across a range of project types,
including HVAC, water heating, and envelope projects. The survey included quantitative and qualitative
questions to collect evidence on the estimated cost reduction potential of these strategies and their
likelihood of use in the construction industry. The 167 survey respondents included contractors, energy
consultants, architects, manufacturers, and others with
experience in delivering energy upgrades in single-family and multifamily buildings in the US.
Results show that significant cost reductions are achievable by minimizing additional infrastructure costs
(such as replacing electric panels), streamlining project planning/management, and deploying innovations
that simplify installation. We apply these strategies to the costs of individual upgrade measures from
previous studies, finding they could save 21–37%, excluding soft cost reduction strategies. For a
prototypical deep retrofit project including heat pumps for space and water heating in addition to
envelope upgrades, the strategies could result in a total installed cost reduction of nearly 50%,
dramatically improving the customer economics of such a project. We discuss how insights on the most
promising and high-value cost reduction strategies for home energy upgrades can further accelerate their
uptake in the US housing stock.