Communicating Energy Efficiency to Customers

With energy use and rising utility bills increasingly dominating the headlines, demand for energy-efficient homes could see a significant increase. Recently Alan Greenspan testified in front of the Committee on Energy and Commerce within the U.S. House of Representatives on natural gas supply and demand issues, warning that natural gas prices will likely continue to increase through the summer and into next winter’s heating season. As one part of a quality home, energy efficiency is something that homeowners appreciate…even if they don’t quite know how to ask for it. While they might not know about the importance of a sealed duct system or properly sized HVAC equipment, they notice how much they save when they see lower utility bills, and they notice comfort when their homes are no longer too cold or too hot.

But how do we teach consumers about the real benefits of energy efficiency? Homebuyers are bombarded with so much information when purchasing a home that some feel overwhelmed just with the general choices of location, floor plan, and architectural design. Is there an easy way to show consumers how much difference energy efficient design, materials, and mechanics can make?
Sam Rashkin, manager of the Energy Star® Homes program, offers these suggestions: “In order to get the customer to understand the concepts of energy efficiency, they must be presented in terms of the value added by the new technology and how that easily relates to their daily lives. Big numbers and technical words don’t work with them; putting the information into terms they understand allows them to effortlessly make the connection.” Below are some simple catch phrases to use when explaining specific technologies to homebuyers.

Properly Installed Insulation:

Without zero-tolerance insulation, it’s like wearing a jacket open and loose on a bitter cold winter day.

If it were below freezing outside, you wouldn’t wear your coat unzipped. The same idea applies to your home: without properly installed insulation, you’re letting the heat escape from your home much like your body heat escapes when you’re not bundled up in cold weather.

Tight Construction:

Airtight construction is like closing a hole the size of an open window in your wall.

Having a continuous air barrier in a home is critical. The small holes in the building envelope from electrical and piping penetrations throughout a home add up to a significant source of lost energy if not sealed properly.

Properly Sized Equipment:

Start-and-stop air conditioner operation hurts efficiency and lifetime just like driving a car every day in busy stop-and-go traffic.

Air conditioners need to run for longer periods of time in order to achieve maximum efficiency and to optimally cool and dehumidify the house.

Pressure Balancing:

Now you can have privacy along with proper airflow and comfort in your bedrooms.

In many homes, unbalanced pressures caused by unbalanced heating and air conditioning systems can create comfort issues because the airflow designed to reach a room can’t get there, especially when the doors are closed. With a pressure balanced system, air can flow to and from each room freely regardless of whether or not the door’s open, helping to maintain consistent temperatures.



This information is excerpted from a presentation given by Sam Rashkin, manager of the Energy Star® Homes program. In an effort to prevent pollution and avoid risks associated with global climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency created the Energy Star® program. Energy Star® is a voluntary partnership that includes more than 2,400 builders, developers, retailers, and product manufacturers who are working to build homes that use energy more efficiently.