Presented by Rebecca Brown at the Behavior Energy and Climate Conference, November 18-20 in Sacramento, CA. Rebecca, program manager for BKi, reviewed a growing body of data, including original research comparing modeled and actual utility bill savings, indicating that whole-house energy efficiency programs do not adequately address occupant behavior.”

1. Efficiency PAYS®
Learn How On-Bill Can Work
Western Municipal Water District
September 11, 2013
Beyond Buildings:
How to Incorporate Behavior Modification into
Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
Behavior, Energy, and Climate Change Conference
November 20, 2013

2. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
What’s missing from the current whole-house incentive
program landscape?
• Behavior! Plug loads!
• While space conditioning and water heating
upgrades are essential, other end-uses
comprise nearly half of total energy use in
California homes
• Successful feedback/behavior programs exist
(e.g., in California: Opower, SMUD HER), but
interventions aren’t integrated with
whole-house efforts

3. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
2008 usage *
Savings goal
(40% BTU
reduction) **
Annual billion therms
Annual billion kWh
BACKGROUND: California energy efficiency goals
How much do we need to save in the residential sector?
Measured
savings to date
(2.3% BTU
reduction) ***
* Source: KEMA, Residential Appliance Saturation Survey (RASS) for California, 2003 and 2009. http://websafe.kemainc.com/rass2009/
** Source: Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan (2011) http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Energy+Efficiency/eesp/
*** Among IOU and REN programs, Jan 2010-Aug/Sep 2013. Source: http://eega.cpuc.ca.gov/

4. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
BACKGROUND: Where is energy used in California homes?
2003
HVAC/H2O
heating
62%
Other
end-uses
38%
2009
HVAC/H2O
heating
54%
Other
end-uses
46%
Source: KEMA, Residential Appliance Saturation Survey (RASS) for California, 2003 and 2009. http://websafe.kemainc.com/rass2009/

5. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
BACKGROUND: Where is energy used in California homes?
Miscellaneous
100%
11%
90%
80%
% of energy use
70%
40%
8%
6%
Pools and spas
Lighting
4%
5%
9%
42%
8%
22%
26%
5%
4%
3%
19%
20%
Laundry
Dishwasher and cooking
Refrigerators and freezers
Water heating
30%
39%
25%
10%
TV, PC, and office equipment
7%
9%
18%
60%
50%
6%
4%
3%
6%
Space cooling
Space heating
8%
0%
kWh
therms
total BTUs
Source: KEMA, Residential Appliance Saturation Survey (RASS) for California, 2003 and 2009. http://websafe.kemainc.com/rass2009/

6. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
BACKGROUND: Predicted savings vs. realized utility bill savings in
California’s whole-house programs
Utility bill savings
60%
40%
20%
R² = 0.0659
0%
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
Modeled savings
Source: BKi analysis of Energy Upgrade California EnergyPro models vs. actual PG&E, SCE, SoCalGas, and SMUD utility bills

7. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
BACKGROUND: What measures are included in current California
whole-house incentive programs?
Home Upgrade
PG&E Advanced
SCE/SoCalGas
Advanced
SMUD
HVAC equipment
✓
✓
✓
✓
Water heating
equipment
✓
✓
✓
✓
Envelope
measures
✓
✓
✓
✓
Pool pumps
✗
✗
✗
✓
Screw-in lighting
✗
✗
✗
✗
Plug loads
✗
✗
✗
✗
Thermostat
settings and other
behavior-based
approaches
✗
✗
✗
✗
Measure

8. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
Every home needs a unique savings plan
Similar annual energy
bills ($)
BUT
Different consumption
patterns

9. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
Guide users to the best path for savings
Smart meter
disaggregation
Energy reduction
recommendations
and usage tracking
Idle Mode exceeds 400W
Update of
monthly
interval
data
Phone
consultation
HVAC efficiency:
•Cooling > 8BTU’s/sf/hdd
•Heating > 4BTU’s/sf/hdd
•Occupant owned SFR
Referral to
Whole House
Program

10. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
An example: Range of idle load by house size
Maximum
Average
Minimum

11. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
Policy and program design recommendations
1) Expand definition of “whole house” to
include plug loads and lighting
• Include behavior feedback/recommendations among
“measures”
• Behavior has greatest impact on plug loads & lighting, but
operational settings on HVAC & DHW is also important
• “Behavior” includes decision to purchase efficient appliances
& equipment

12. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
Policy and program design recommendations
2) Sell multiple levels of upgrades under a single
program umbrella
• Utilities currently operate loosely-integrated patchwork of
incentive programs
• No- and low-cost behavior changes are a first an ongoing step
to achieving deeper savings
• What about energy use attribution? We need to move beyond
current paradigm of energy savings firewalls between
programs
• Measure actual energy use via automated utility meter
analysis; identify which measures contributed to what savings
via disaggregation

13. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
Policy and program design recommendations
3) Incentivize realized energy savings in addition
to asset improvements
• Customer rebates can be tied to both physical upgrade and
actual energy use reductions
• Emphasizes the importance of behavior and operational
settings, contributes to sustained savings

14. Beyond Buildings: How to Incorporate Behavior Modification
into Whole-House Energy Upgrade Programs
Policy and program design recommendations
4) Continue to quantify magnitude and
persistence of energy savings from behavioral
measures
• Build on wealth of existing studies and incorporate findings
into cost-effectiveness tests
• Build and advocate for analysis techniques that allow
attribution of behavioral savings within a comprehensive
upgrade program

15. Questions?
Rebecca Brown rbrown@bki.com
Lisa Schmidt lisa@hea.com