Home Energy Efficiency Pilot Program

Pilot Project Goals

The main activity envisioned by the pilot project is to offer homeowners, interested in learning about their home’s energy efficiency, electrification and renewable energy options, professional home energy assessment and advice regarding available energy improvement options to them, taking into account the practical and cost factors of a holistic home energy overhaul and individual retrofits. Through carefully documented case studies the project team will gain a deeper understanding of the real-life challenges (mentioned previously) to making home energy improvements, and real-life solutions to overcome these. An attempt will be made to cover a range of homes in terms of location (rural v. town), weather factors (mostly related to geography and altitude) and household incomes (low, medium and high income).  

The observations and lessons learned from these case studies will be instrumental for a realistic, context-appropriate and scalable strategy to achieve the EAP goals related to energy savings, decarbonization and GHG reductions associated with residential housing in Nevada County. The experience and learning from these case studies will allow the program to take into account the challenges and circumstances of home energy needs specific to (Western) Nevada County, including the shortage of affordable homes, the relatively high proportion of homeowners facing higher than average energy burdens, and the need for backup power to deal with frequent power outages, among others.

A secondary goal envisioned by this project is creating awareness of home energy programs and incentives, and the processes involved, with homeowners, contractors, home energy experts, building permitting agencies, local jurisdictions and public agencies, utilities, educational institutions and financial service providers. Insights from the pilot project and subsequent discussions with these community stakeholders will help prepare them in playing a significant role in the building energy transition about to take place in full force, through gaining a better understanding of demand for energy technologies, contractor training and capacity, workforce education and development, and financing.