Home Energy Makeover Contests Motivate

Whole House Energy Saving Improvements

Apogee’s recent Innovations conference featured a unique presentation on how to conduct a Home Energy Makeover Contest.  Ed Thomas of the Market Development Group showcased recent contests offered by the Delta-Montrose Electric Association, Maine Home Performance with ENERGY STAR, and, most recently, Anaheim Public Utilities and the Electric and Gas Industries Association.  In November, the Energy Trust of Oregon will launch its own version with the Market Development Group’s assistance.  

Home Energy Makeover Contests are modeled after reality television shows, but with a dramatic difference.  The contest takes a quantitative approach to selecting homes that best demonstrate the most potential for energy savings based on BTU-per-square-foot and other factors.  The winning home receives a makeover using energy-saving products and services donated by local suppliers. The improvements to the contest winning homes prove that a comprehensive “whole house” approach can achieve energy savings of 50 percent or more in existing buildings.

All contest entrants (i.e. contest losers) and other community members are invited to tour the newly-improved, winning home and learn how to conduct their own energy makeover at their own expense using the local suppliers. Each time the winning home owners make a compelling case to the home visitors and media for the non-energy benefits that the improvements achieve -- in comfort, health, safety and more – as well as the energy-saving benefits.

These contests illustrate there is a viable market to encourage homeowners to make more comprehensive home energy improvement choices.  A variation on the contest approach was recently taken in Durango, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming where Home Energy Makeover Workshops were conducted without the contest component to bring together area home improvement providers with homeowners.

The key is to place the focus not just on the winners but on all the contest entrants (i.e. the losers).  In the most recent Anaheim contest, all entrants received a link to Apogee’s HomeEnergySuite so they could calculate the cost-savings benefit of conducting their own home energy makeover.  At the Cheyenne workshop, attendees received instruction on the online HomeEnergyGuide available from Apogee at Cheyenne Fuel, Light and Power’s website.

To see Ed Thomas’ Powerpoint presentation from the Atlanta conference here or visit www.homeenergymakeover.org.