Behavioral Perspectives on Home Energy Audits: The Role of Auditors, Labels, Reports, and Audit Tools on Homeowner Decision-Making Aaron Ingle, Mithra Moezzi, Loren Lutzenhiser, and Zac Hathaway Portland State University Susan Lutzenhiser, Joe Van Clock, and Jane Peters Research Into Action Rebecca Smith and David Heslam Earth Advantage Institute Rick Diamond Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory July 2012 DISCLAIMER This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by the United States Government. While this document is believed to contain correct information, neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor The Regents of the University of California, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by its trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof, or The Regents of the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof or The Regents of the University of California. This work was supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Building Technologies Program, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02- 05CH11231. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Joan Glickman, Christa McDermott, and David Lee at the U.S. Department of Energy; Oradoña Landgrebe and Andrew Gibb at Seattle City Light; Sara Stiltner at the City of Seattle; Ammen Jordan at Home Performance Collaborative; Kristen Nice and Dave Henson at Puget Sound Energy; and Amber Johnson, Debi Elliot, and Tara Horn of Portland State University. We would also like to thank Tom Sanquist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Alan Sanstad and Evan Mills at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for providing thoughtful review of a draft of this report. Behavioral Perspectives on Home Energy Audits Page 2 Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................. 4 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ 5 Acronyms and Abbreviations ....................................................................................................................... 8 Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 9 1. Introduction and Background ............................................................................................................. 21 2. Approach ............................................................................................................................................. 31 3. Industry Actors’ Opinions and Perceptions—Auditors & Realtors ..................................................... 47 4. Homeowner Decision-Making Related to Energy Upgrades, Audit Reports, and Labels ................... 71 5. Post-Retrofit Assessment and Retrofit Quality Verification ............................................................. 118 6. Home Energy Audit and Assessment Modeling Tool Comparison ................................................... 125 7. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 148 References ................................................................................................................................................ 159 Appendix A: EPS Scorecard....................................................................................................................... 163 Appendix B: EPS Energy Analysis Report .................................................................................................. 165 Appendix C: Sample Home Energy Score Report ..................................................................................... 179 Appendix D: Auditor Interview Guide ...................................................................................................... 182 Appendix E: Auditor Interviews Results – Presentation to Team, 3/2/11 ............................................... 186 Appendix F: Real Estate Professionals Interview Guide ........................................................................... 191 Appendix G: Real Estate Professionals Interviews Presentation 8/16/11 ............................................... 195 Appendix H: Homeowner Pre-Audit Interview Guide .............................................................................. 200 Appendix I: Homeowner Pre-Audit Interview Closed-Ended Responses ................................................. 207 Appendix J: Homeowner Post-Audit Interview Guide .............................................................................. 211 Appendix K: Homeowner Post-Audit Interview Closed-Ended Responses .............................................. 222 Appendix L: Post-Audit Survey Questions and Responses ....................................................................... 228 Appendix M: Retrofit Survey Questions and Responses .......................................................................... 277 Appendix N: Details of Modeling Data Processing and Preparation ........................................................ 323 Appendix O: EPS Auditor, Home Energy Scoring Tool, and HESPro Feature Comparison ....................... 330 Appendix P: Comparison of Asset-Based Energy Use Estimates .............................................................. 334 Appendix Q: Comparison of Model Estimates to Utility-Reported Energy Usage ................................... 345 Appendix R: Assessment of Impact of Missing Home Energy Scoring Tool Inputs .................................. 368 Behavioral Perspectives on Home Energy Audits Page 3 Appendix S: Comparison of Recommendations—EPS Auditor and Home Energy Scoring Tool .............. 371 Appendix T: Model Assumptions of “Standard” Operation Compared to Reported Behaviors .............. 383 List of Tables Table 1: Overview of research data streams .............................................................................................. 11 Table 2: Overview of research data streams .............................................................................................. 31 Table 3: House and household sample ....................................................................................................... 35 Table 4: Characteristics of audited households as compared to SCL Customer Survey............................. 36 Table 5: Demographic characteristics of survey respondents compared to the community overall ........ 38 Table 6: Number of completed homeowner interviews and surveys by category .................................... 41 Table 7: Mapping of house and homeowner data streams to completed analyses .................................. 44 Table 8: Typical homeowner-initiated post-audit call-back topics ............................................................. 56 Table 9: Factors considered and their impact on recommendations ......................................................... 58 Table 10: Auditor use of “General Notes” field in audit report .................................................................. 59 Table 11: Summary of number of completed homeowner interviews and surveys .................................. 71 Table 12: Reasons cited by Pre-Audit Interviewees for seeking an audit (multiple responses allowed) ... 74 Table 13: What part of the audit process was particularly helpful in convincing household members .... 78 Table 14: Responses on the relative importance of Energy Score versus Carbon Score ........................... 81 Table 15: Reasons given for having undertaken audit (Post-Audit Survey; n=134) ................................... 86 Table 16: After your energy audit, have you discussed your Energy Score ............................................... 88 Table 17: Completed or intended upgrades cited more often after the audit .......................................... 89 Table 18: Completed or intended upgrades cited less often after the audit ............................................. 90 Table 19: How much Retrofit Survey respondents reported learning ....................................................... 92 Table 20: Percentage of audited households receiving “standardized” recommendations ...................... 95 Table 21: Considerations in priority of upgrades (Post-Audit Interviews; n=12) ....................................... 96 Table 22: Number of recommendations that survey respondents reported having completed ............... 99 Table 23: Energy upgrade recommendations received and reported completed ................................... 100 Table 24: Reasons homeowners gave for choosing the retrofits they completed ................................... 102 Table 25: Reasons homeowners gave for delaying planned retrofits (Retrofit