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U.S. Department of Energy Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Home Energy Score Pilot Summaries

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) partnered with counties, utilities, and non-profit organizations ("Pilots") across the country to test and evaluate the Home Energy Score from November 2010 through July 2011. Through these Pilots, DOE tested a wide range of issues associated with the program and the associated software, the Home Energy Scoring Tool, including:

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  • How homeowners responded to the Home Energy Score and process
  • Training of the home energy assessors and reaction to the Scoring Tool
  • Methods to conduct Quality Assurance
  • Climatic sensitivity of the Home Energy Scoring Tool

The Pilots were spread out across varied climates, represented most U.S. regions, and included both urban and rural communities. DOE and the Pilots tested the Home Energy Score through new and existing home assessment programs, comprehensive energy improvement programs, and a public information campaign linked to a home tour.

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

EfficiencyPA
www.efficiencypa.com/housetour

Efficiency PA added a new aspect to its popular annual home tours in Allegheny County by showcasing energy efficiency projects using the Home Energy Score. They scored 15 homes, which were featured during the Allegheny County Green Innovation Festival in 2011. The Festival provided an opportunity for a high-visibility marketing campaign.

Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts

Cape Light Compact
www.capelightcompact.org
PO Box 427 SCH
Barnstable, MA 02630
P: 508-375-6828

Kevin Galligan
kgalligan@capelightcompact.org

Cape Light Compact, an intergovernmental organization, is made up of the 21 towns on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and serves 200,000 energy customers. The organization works with energy improvement contractors to better serve homeowners and encourage consumers to get home energy upgrades. Cape Light Compact offers home energy assessments as part of the Mass Save® program. Cape Light Compact scored 126 homes through June 2011.

Chicago area, Illinois

Center for Neighborhood Technology
Chicago, IL
P: 773-269-4037

Rachel Scheu
rscheu@cntenergy.org

CNT Energy, a division of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, used the Home Energy Scoring Tool for 111 Chicago homes audited between February and June 2011. The participating homeowners were eligible for air sealing and attic insulation rebates, and they also received low-flow showerheads, faucet aerators and compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) during the energy assessments. CNT Energy also provided quality control to ensure that the energy improvements were installed properly and followed up with homeowners to evaluate .customer satisfaction.

Greater Charlottesville area, Virginia

Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP)
www.leap-va.org
P.O. Box 4523
Charlottesville, VA 22905
P: 434-825-0232

Cynthia Adams
Executive Director
Cynthia@Leap-va.org

The Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP) used the Home Energy Score to encourage residents of the City of Charlottesville and the five surrounding counties (Albemarle, Greene, Nelson, Fluvanna, and Louisa) to score their homes and enroll in its home energy improvement program. Residents whose homes scored poorly on the Home Energy Score would benefit from LEAP's Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program, which provides homeowners with incentives, financing, pre-qualified contractors, and quality assurance to do energy improvements. The program scored 44 homes through June 2011.

Indiana

Hoosier Energy
www.hepn.com
7398 N. State Road 37
Bloomington, IN 47402
P: 812-876-0249

Tom VanParis
Manager, Marketing & Member Services
TVanParis@HEPN.com

As part of their existing residential weatherization programs, Hoosier Energy scored 102 homes through June 2011. The utility's programs include ongoing home energy assessments and they layered the Home Energy Score into their projects. Hoosier Energy uses advanced diagnostic and modeling software to identify the most cost-effective measures to install in a home while modeling the effect on energy usage after the measures are installed.

Minnesota

Center for Energy and Environment (CEE)
www.mncee.org
212 3rd Avenue North, Suite 560
Minneapolis, MN 55401
P: 612-335-5871

Jenny Edwards
Program and Policy Manager
jedwards@mncee.org

The Minnesota Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) is a non-profit organization that promotes the responsible use of natural and economic resources. As one of its services, CEE does home energy assessments on existing homes. They provided the Home Energy Score as an additional service for a portion of these energy assessments. CEE scored 153 homes through June 2011.

Portland area, Oregon

Energy Trust of Oregon
www.energytrust.org
Portland, OR
P: 503-445-7621

Diane Ferington
diane.ferington@energytrust.org

The Energy Trust of Oregon helps residential, business and public/nonprofit utility ratepayers use less energy, save on energy costs, and move to renewable energy sources. Under their existing "Home Energy Solutions" program, Energy Trust scored 169 homes using DOE's Home Energy Scoring Tool.

South Carolina

Central Electric Power Cooperative, Inc.
121 Greystone Blvd.
Columbia, SC 29210
P: 803-779-4975

Mike Smith
Director of Energy Programs
energyhes@cepci.org

South Carolina's rural electric cooperatives have a long-term goal to weatherize an unprecedented 225,000 homes statewide by 2021—or one-third of the homes served by the state's co-ops. USDA Rural Development partnered with DOE and the South Carolina electric co-ops to further encourage rural consumers to invest in improving the energy efficiency of their homes. The South Carolina co-ops plan to create a database with contractor information, ratings and energy assessments, as well as inputs for energy savings, cost savings and returns on investment. South Carolina scored 160 homes through June 2011.

Texas

United Cooperative Services, Inc.
www.united-cs.com
Cleburne, TX 76033
P: 817-556-4033

Marty Haught
VP Communications
Martyh@united-cs.com

United Cooperative Services, a rural utility serving North Texas, has completed nearly 2,000 home energy assessments in 2010. As part of its home energy audit program in 2011, United scored 103 homes using the DOE Home Energy Scoring Tool.