While only one of many program designs under the broad umbrella of behavioral energy efficiency (BEE) programs, home energy report (HER) distribution has become the primary residential BEE program in energy efficiency portfolios in the past decade. HER programs focus on reducing the demand for energy in the residential sector and have a consistent history of savings as well as cost-effectiveness over time (Allcott and Rogers 2014). Securing cost-effective energy savings and GHG reductions remains a critical challenge for the residential sector, and it is important to understand how programs like HERs are delivering on these objectives. This meta-analysis examines two research topics:
- Are HER programs still working? How have HER programs performed over recent years?
- Are all HER programs the same? To what extent do savings from HER programs vary by the length of treatment, HER vendor, or program design?
This report first describes the research methods used, then summarizes the results, and finally concludes with a brief discussion of reporting inconsistencies across HERs evaluations that limit the field’s capacity to compare across studies. Download the final report to read our conclusions based on our meta-analysis.
