Weatherization is easy, right? Survey says … not so much.

Remember when energy savings from LED lighting were the low-hanging fruit that led to great success in energy efficiency programs across the country? Low cost, an easy direct install and easily distributed to almost every customer — those were the days! As with all good things, the time for making hay while the LED bulb shines is in the rearview mirror.

Utilities today are now more focused on promoting weatherization to achieve greater energy savings, but driving adoption of these programs is much more difficult than lighting.

To make this task a little easier, we surveyed 3,000 Americans to identify and understand the most common barriers to weatherizing homes and buildings, revealing insights like: “Would the cost of an energy audit justify the energy savings I would get?” and “Whom to trust to give a fair assessment?”

The results and insights from our survey are too good of a resource to guard — so we’re sharing them here in hopes that it’s as useful to you as it is to us!

The cost conundrum

OK, let’s address the elephant in the room: The No. 1 barrier preventing customers from making energy efficiency upgrades is cost. Our survey revealed that 52.6% of respondents cite the “costs associated” with making these upgrades as the primary barrier.

The frustrating part about the cost barrier is that energy efficiency rebates and incentives are frequently available to these customers. Interestingly, our survey also revealed that 61.4% of customers are simply not aware that rebates or incentives exist. Despite years of marketing well-established energy efficiency programs to customers, it’s clear there’s still more work to do. We’ll get back to this, but addressing the awareness problem may well be the most effective way to overcome this gnarly barrier.

When it comes to how customers think about the costs of undertaking weatherization or other energy efficiency measures, we observed some nuance within the open-ended comments we gathered in our survey — here are two notable findings:

The initial investment for energy audits and weatherization upgrades can be substantial, deterring customers — especially those with limited budgets or fixed incomes.

While many energy efficiency programs offered by utility companies provide a “no-cost” energy audit, some programs require the customer to pay out of pocket for the audit (which can range between $300 and $500), with this amount reimbursed if the customer proceeds with undertaking one or more of the recommended upgrades. However, the reimbursement is often only made after the upgrades are completed and additional paperwork is filed, which can take several months.

In our survey, we saw many comments that reflect this challenge. One comment reads: “I’m on a fixed income and simply can’t afford the upfront costs.” In situations where customers are income-qualified for even higher incentives, it’s clear that there’s extra work to do to make sure these customers are aware they may not have to pay anything at all.

Uncertainty about ROI

The second nuance to the cost barrier we uncovered in our survey is that customers may be unsure about the long-term return on investment for weatherization, making it difficult to justify any part of the expense not covered by available incentives.

One survey respondent stated, “I’m not convinced that the savings on my energy bills will outweigh the cost of the upgrades.” This sentiment underscores the need for clear and convincing information about the potential cost savings associated with weatherization and fixing home heat loss.

In a MyHEAT project with a municipal gas and electric utility company, when customers were shown how much money they could save on their energy bills by weatherizing their home (supported by a heat loss map for the home), this led to a 28% increase in applications for weatherization. Additionally, for every $100 in possible savings communicated to customers, there was an 8.1% reduction in natural gas usage.

For many utility companies, there can be additional barriers when it comes to communicating potential cost savings to customers. However, as program participation for upgrades like weatherization becomes more difficult, it’s quickly becoming imperative to help customers move past this barrier of uncertain ROI by highlighting the potential savings.

Information gaps and lack of awareness

This is where things start to get interesting! We’ve established that more than 60% of customers aren’t aware of available incentives and rebates, but the “awareness” barrier is also a problem when it comes to knowing what to expect with energy audits and weatherization options.

In our survey, we asked respondents to rate how likely they are to sign up for an energy audit in the next 12 months — 43% said they were unlikely to do so. When asked to explain why they would be hesitant, we discovered two main issues of awareness: a general lack of familiarity with a typical energy audit and uncertainty about which weatherization improvements they could make.

Lack of familiarity and misconceptions about energy audits

Of the 43% who said they were unlikely to sign up for an energy audit, 23.3% said, “I don’t know what an energy audit is.” Even though energy audits have been a staple of energy efficiency programs for years — and even though they are often the starting point (and a prerequisite for rebates!) — it’s worth noting that there’s a group of customers who still don’t know what an energy audit is.

Beyond not knowing exactly what an audit is, we also saw respondents say, “I’m not sure what’s involved in an energy audit.” Helping customers understand the process of an audit can help address this concern. Putting ourselves in the customers’ shoes, we might ask:

• How can I trust the person who shows up at the door to let them in?
• How long does an energy audit take?
• What if I have pets at home?
• Do I need to walk around with the person doing the audit?
• Will the energy auditor need to open cupboards, go in the attic, lift up floorboards or make holes in my walls?

Digging in a little deeper into this insight, it became clear that customers also have some anxiety about energy audits. The causes for this anxiety range from concerns about disruption in the home to upgrades that would affect the aesthetics of the home, inside or out. We recorded the following comments from our survey:

• “I’m worried about what they might find during the audit.”
• “I don’t want to be pressured into making expensive upgrades.”

If a customer decides to proceed with efficiency and weatherization work, there is also the concern of “having workers in my home for days.” This is not an entirely unfounded cause for concern — there are approaches to air sealing and insulation that, in some cases, require the resident to move out of the home for two to three days while work is completed. Such disruption could obviously be a huge barrier to completing work, especially if alternative accommodations are not compensated. This highlights the need for streamlined installation processes that minimize disruption.

Beyond building additional awareness about energy audits, it’s clear there’s work to do to reassure customers that audits are dedicated to making the home more comfortable — and that recommendations are shared guilt-free and with no commitment to take action.

Where do I start, and is weatherization worth the hassle?

In the words of the great Irish poet Hozier, 13.2% of respondents in our survey shared insights like, “I wouldn’t know where to start,” and, “I don’t really know what kind of upgrades I could make to my home.” I can hear program managers across North America screaming, “This is exactly what an energy audit is designed to help with!” But if we can’t get customers signed up for an audit, how will they ever receive the advice they need to find out where they should start and which upgrades they should make?

Aside from not knowing where to begin, we saw respondents comment that they aren’t sure if going through with the work is worth the effort:

These kinds of insights suggest that customers aren’t fully aware of the broader benefits of weatherization — such as improved comfort and health, reduced energy bills, and a positive environmental impact combined.

You’re unlikely to be surprised to hear that 24.9% of survey respondents cited their rentership status as the main barrier preventing them from making energy-efficient upgrades. For renters, the decision to carry out more detailed upgrades such as weatherization often rests with the landlord, creating a barrier when landlords lack the motivation or resources to invest in energy efficiency. This means renters are often only able to take small steps to save energy.

Our survey revealed that even for those renters who try to raise the subject with their landlords, it doesn’t always lead to action. As one tenant commented, “I’ve tried talking to my landlord about weatherization, but they’re not interested.” This emphasizes the need for improved communication and education for both tenants and landlords.

There has been much said and shared in the past between those of us in the energy industry about the “split incentive” at the heart of this dilemma, but what isn’t often talked about explicitly is the risk that renters face when a landlord considers making costly retrofit upgrades. As our friend Yasmin Abraham from Kambo Energy Group told us in a recent HEAT Seat interview: “I don’t think there’s a universe where we upgrade renters’ homes and it is risk-free. There is a risk because their landlords could increase the rent or renovict them. Right now, the renter is taking 100% of the risk.”

While some jurisdictions have renter protection laws to mitigate some of this risk, they aren’t widespread, and they aren’t always ironclad or enforceable. When this is the case, the best we might be able to hope for is some light-touch efficiency upgrades like door sweeps or weatherstripping — unless we can find ways to bring landlords into the conversation and along for the ride.

Even if you have the most willing and eager customers banging down your door to get weatherization work completed in their building, structural or material barriers may prevent your contractors from setting foot inside.

A few respondents in our survey commented that they live in an “older home with asbestos.” This is most certainly an area that needs addressing — and an issue that can be hard to tackle due to health and safety concerns for any contractor attempting to enter the home to complete work. The same barrier applies to homes with vermiculite, poor or unstable roof conditions, as well as knob-and-tube wiring. In all of these cases, addressing the issues requires specialized expertise, supported by additional resources, before any weatherization can be done.

Compounding issues for income-qualified customer groups

For market-rate customers with median or higher-than-average incomes, fixing structural and material issues in the building may be as simple as calling in an expert tradesperson, paying the bill and continuing with their lives. But for customers whose income aligns with low-to-moderate income (LMI) definitions, fixing these issues may be a decision they have to delay — prioritizing groceries and bills instead.

As if this weren’t already a significant challenge, there is often a strong overlap between areas with higher LMI populations and areas with known environmental hazards, such as proximity to fossil fuel production or heavy industry. This means environmental health concerns are even greater.

Weatherization health & safety programs

Thankfully, utilities have recognized this, and various pilot programs have either been launched or are in the works — often targeted at income-eligible or low-to-moderate income customers. These programs are referred to as “whole home” approaches or “weatherization health and safety” programs to describe the specific problems they address.

National Grid New York is one of the utilities to launch a health and safety–focused program to help unlock weatherization by addressing health concerns first. National Grid customers enrolled in the utility’s Energy Affordability Plan will be prioritized for outreach. Once onboarded to the Health & Safety program, qualified tradespeople can be dispatched to address the following measures:

• Carbon monoxide hazards
• Gas leak and pipe repair
• Ventilation issues
• Mold, vermiculite, asbestos and pest concerns
• Roof repair
• Electrical issues
• Water leaks or related plumbing issues

This particular pilot program runs through April 2027 and, if effective, lays the groundwork for a promising solution to overcome this specific barrier.

You didn’t think we’d write an article about barriers to weatherization without touching on trust, did you? An important but often overlooked component of how we engage with customers on this topic, a lack of trust between customers and their utility provider or local contractors can completely undermine every other best effort to engage them.

Evolving beyond a transactional relationship

For many customers, the relationship between them and their utility provider is seen as mostly transactional: Utility sends me a bill, I have an obligation to pay it. Sure, they may occasionally email me about outages, community events or ways to save energy, but reliably, every month, I’m going to have a bill to pay.

While the majority of customers are able to pay their bill on time, 20% of U.S. households are behind on their utility bills, accruing up to thousands of dollars in unpaid balances. This issue is especially present for LMI households. Collectively across the United States, uncollectible bills amounted to $32 billion in 2020.

For utility companies, evolving the relationship beyond being transactional is an excellent way to build trust. This can be done in many ways, including offering help and support with bills, energy-saving advice, guidance on how to choose the right contractor, and demonstrating community investment and commitment. Building this trust means that when it comes time to ask customers to participate in programs, they are less anxious to open the email or letter about that program — giving the utility a better chance to further build trust by communicating about beneficial programs.

A perfect example of this is expressed in one respondent’s comment from our survey: “I’m not sure I trust these programs. They might be trying to sell me something.”

Understanding customer needs

Here is one of the most painfully obvious statements of this entire article: Not every customer is the same. But let’s think about that statement and unravel it. While some customers will absolutely be interested in the program a utility wants to communicate — and will trust the utility enough to engage and hopefully participate — this may only represent a small percentage of the total customer base.

So what about all the other customers, who don’t have the same implicit trust, or for whom a simple one-size-fits-all message just doesn’t work? To answer this question, we spoke with Angie Ostaszcewski, director of strategy and innovation, in an episode of The HEAT Seat. Here’s what she had to say: “I think being able to understand what’s important to people, and bundling that with energy is one of my favorite things to do.”

Angie provides an example of a customer with a disability who may struggle to reach a light switch, which could represent a pain point multiple times a day. In this case, simply providing LED bulbs doesn’t make much of a difference — but offering a program that starts by eliminating that pain point (i.e., understanding what’s important to people) while also reducing energy use with LEDs is an excellent way to succeed and build trust.

Survey says … we have work to do

It’s no secret to anyone in this industry that the barriers we’ve described here — along with many others — present a challenge to driving adoption of energy efficiency and weatherization programs.

Our hope is that the nuance we’ve provided here, by sharing insights from our surveys, helps to put a finer point on some of the broader ways we think about these barriers — so you can take more informed action.

Here, we leave you with some of our key recommendations to overcome these barriers.

Continue to invest in awareness marketing

Sixty-one point four percent — that’s the percentage of survey respondents who simply are not aware that energy rebates or incentives exist and are available to them. Even if program participation rates are low (due to one or several of the barriers we described), every incremental customer we make aware of programs and incentives is an additional customer who can begin to participate.

If you fear that your awareness marketing is beginning to saturate the market, we’re here to tell you the chances are high that this isn’t true — and that you should continue to invest in top-of-funnel program marketing to build further awareness among your customers.

But to invest these dollars more efficiently, don’t just target all customers with the same message and hope for results (otherwise known as “spray and pray”) — there is a solution, and it’s our next recommendation below.

Use data to find customers who need weatherization

This may sound obvious, but customers whose buildings are already well-sealed or who have recently participated in efficiency programs are significantly less likely to respond to your marketing efforts.

No matter how good your awareness marketing is, without some form of insight informing your targeting, you’re wasting precious marketing dollars talking to the wrong customers about weatherization. What’s worse, some of the customers with well-sealed buildings may still enroll in your programs and request a home energy audit — wasting even more program resources to the tune of $300 per home visit.

MyHEAT’s city-scale heat loss insights for individual buildings can tell you which customers are the best targets to talk to about weatherization — knowing you’ll also get more savings from completing weatherization for these buildings. Inversely, MyHEAT’s insights can also tell you which customers’ buildings are already well-sealed, making them great candidates to talk to about electrification.

MyHEAT’s visual heat loss maps and ratings shows which buildings need weatherization and which are great candidates for electrification.

Reject insanity

You’ve heard the saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”?

Yes, many real barriers exist to increasing weatherization program adoption. But if your current marketing efforts are starting to feel a little stale (“Get a free smart thermostat” or “Get a no-cost home energy audit” sound familiar?), then it’s time to reject insanity, embrace innovation and look for ways to inject new life into your program marketing.

We know that when customers see a thermal image of their home, they’re five times more likely to take action on energy efficiency. We help our utility customers reject insanity by infusing every piece of marketing with fascinating and personalized thermal heat loss imagery of buildings, which acts as a “pattern interrupt” for customers who start to tune out traditional marketing efforts.

Did any of these insights or messages resonate with you? If yes, let’s talk — survey says … we’ve got work to do.