Energy Efficiency Market Research: Targeting Residential Energy Consumers
Market research should go beyond demographic household data to capture the underlying potential motivators for proceeding with an energy efficiency solution. Insights gained should be used to segment energy consumers so each segment could be targeted with an individual communication message that will most motivate that segment.
Promotional channels are the methods in which the message gets to the consumer. Energy efficiency upgrades are not simple products, and promotion needs to be ongoing. Here are some factors for providers of energy efficiency technologies or utilities who are attempting to encourage retrofits to consider for promotional distribution channels.
1. Leverage integrated marketing to maximize program effectiveness.
In integrated marketing, the results of a market campaign are achieved through the coordinated use of multiple types of promotional methods, with each method reinforcing the others, and ideally with consistency of message and look and feel across all channels, whether print or online. Both utility companies and private institutions that are marketing energy efficiency technologies or upgrades can leverage print ads, websites, email marketing, and community events. Utilities can also use bill inserts and call centers for promotional purposes.
Examples of promotional channels reinforcing each other include:
Experimental design is a statistical approach that can be used for measuring and comparing the effectiveness of various marketing campaigns being considered to a target group. Experimental design quantifies the effect of external stimuli (for example promotional message wording, pricing, or promotional offer type) on behavioral responses (eg consumers implementing or not implementing a specific energy improvement measure, like installing new installation).
In experimental design, the stimuli to be tested are called factors, and for the test each factor has a finite number of possible values called levels. A matrix of factors at varying levels is set up to determine how the marketing experiment will be run. Each possible combination of factors is represented by a cell in the matrix. Once the experiment is conducted, the data is collected on the response of the experimental unit, or subject of the experiment. Statistical techniques are then applied to the experimental matrix to identify the effect of factors on the response variable, and in so doing determines the most appropriate levels of factors for the desired response. Read more …
Energy efficiency upgrades can be capital intensive, and payback periods vary widely according to the type of retrofit. This is why building awareness about incentives available to residential or business energy consumers is so critical to any initiative aimed at promoting energy efficiency. Incentives fall into a few categories:
1) Tax incentives, including tax credits, exemptions and deductions
Tax credits directly reduce taxes owed by a certain amount, while tax exemptions and tax deductions reduce taxable income.
For tax credits a sum is deducted from the total amount owed to the federal, state or local government. The credit may be applicable to property, sales or income tax . Things to look out for:
Along with increasing use of renewable sources, implementing energy efficiency measures is crucial to realizing the impressive energy savings goals of municipalities, utilities, and private corporations alike.
Whether it is Walmart who plans to reduce energy consumption in global stores by 20% by 2020, or municipalities like New York City’s PlanNYC which aims for $7 billion in energy savings and 20% in emissions reduction by 2020, ambitious energy efficiency goals can only be met if the individuals responsible for influencing energy behavior or purchasing energy efficient technologies are motivated to make the decision to invest in energy efficiency. Read more …
Standards and guidelines exist to provide organizations with a process for planning and/or implementing energy management practices. Standards such as LEED are also rating systems, and are intended to provide independ
ent verification that a facility conforms to the specified standard. Guidelines like Energy Star provide a blueprint for setting and achieving energy performance goals. The following is an outline of major energy management standards and guidelines.
Users of energy performance data need to have confidence that it is accurate in order for energy efficiency to be a continuous process. The best
way to have energy performance improvement efforts fail is by not paying attention to the accuracy and overall quality of the data. It is absolutely critical that, prior to data collection, a data quality plan is established which lays out: a) steps taken to prevent errors from occurring and b) how questionable data is identified, and what are the red flags to look for. Here are four errors or areas of ambiguity that can impact your stakeholder population’s confidence in the benchmarked data. Read more …
Measurement and Verification (M&V) is the process of collecting, monitoring and analyzing data for the purpose of determining energy savings
from the implementation of an energy efficient measure or project consisting of multiple energy efficiency measures. Since energy savings is an estimated value, the determination of energy savings is an art as much as it is a science. It is the difference between actual energy consumption after the measure has been implemented, and the baseline, which is the estimated energy consumption that would have occurred during the same period and under the same operating conditions if the measure had not been implemented. Therefore,
Energy Savings =
(Actual Energy Consumed)post-project – (Projected Energy Consumed)prepoject conditions ± Adjustments
For simple projects, a deemed savings approach may be used, which uses energy savings estimates from historical evaluations, published in tables like this.
Since energy costs can make up about 40% of building operating costs for commercial buildings, it is critically important to gauge the extent to which there are opportunities for energy savings. Seeing how a property stacks up against other buildings of the same type is an important component in making this assessment. But how do we compare energy efficiency of a property against others? First we have to define the characteristic that we want to measure. What are the key critical to quality (CTQ) energy efficiency measures that are most important to the individuals (property owners or management, business management, building occupants) who might have a vested interest in improving building energy efficiency?
1. Determining Critical to Quality Measures
Three typical types of CTQ measures are:
2. Normalization
CTQ measures need to be adjusted, or normalized, to account for the fact that every building is different. Building energy usage may vary as a result of building size, climate, number of occupants, hours of operation, and a number of other features.
3. Derive Key Performance Indicators
Key energy performance indicators are the specific measures that are used to compare energy performance for a property against that of other properties, and to trend the property’s performance over time. Performance indicators are derived by adjusting the Critical to Quality Measures with the appropriate normalization factor. Common performance indicators include: Read more …
An energy management policy is a formal communication by an institution’s senior management out to its employees, customers, shareholders and
the public at large about energy management as a key priority for the organization. It outlines broad, yet measurable energy management goals that it plans to achieve, and which are in line with overall business goals. It ideally defines energy management organizational roles and establishes who is responsible for implementing the energy management plan. It should also articulate that executing on the overall energy management policy is an ongoing process of continuous improvement, and not a project with an end date, although of course energy improvement projects will come out of executing on the plan.
Sample templates for energy management policies: