Motivating Homeowners to Pursue Energy Retrofits [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Broad Adoption Driven by Practical Necessity

More than eight in ten home­own­ers have com­plet­ed an ener­gy retro­fit in the past five years, led by essen­tial upgrades such as ener­gy-effi­cient win­dows and doors, improved insu­la­tion, and high-effi­cien­cy HVAC sys­tems. These neces­si­ty-dri­ven improve­ments reflect the strong influ­ence of ris­ing ener­gy costs, aging equip­ment, and the promise of long-term house­hold sav­ings. Dis­cre­tionary tech­nolo­gies, includ­ing solar pan­els, bat­tery stor­age, and EV charg­ing sta­tions, lag behind sig­nif­i­cant­ly in comparison. 

Adoption Is Strongest Among Young, Affluent, and Urban Homeowners

The study shows that retro­fit par­tic­i­pa­tion is close­ly tied to capac­i­ty. Younger and high­er-income home­own­ers are far more like­ly to have com­plet­ed ener­gy-effi­cien­cy projects, while adop­tion falls among old­er and low­er-income groups. Urban house­holds also out­pace rur­al house­holds in both com­plet­ed and planned retro­fits, reflect­ing dif­fer­ences in famil­iar­i­ty with incen­tive pro­grams, con­fi­dence in return on invest­ment, and access to qual­i­fied support. 

Looking Forward: Planned Projects Center on Practical Efficiency

Look­ing ahead to the next 12 months, six in ten home­own­ers are plan­ning an ener­gy-effi­cient upgrade. Their focus remains on prag­mat­ic improve­ments such as new win­dows and doors, smart ther­mostats, improved insu­la­tion, and water-sav­ing plumb­ing fix­tures. Aspi­ra­tional upgrades — includ­ing solar, heat pumps, and EV charg­ing — remain sec­ondary pri­or­i­ties, though inter­est increas­es among younger, urban, high­er-income, and advanced DIY house­holds. Gov­ern­ment incen­tives act as an accel­er­ant, influ­enc­ing plan­ning near­ly twice as much as famil­iar­i­ty alone. 

What Motivates Homeowners to Invest

Prac­ti­cal­i­ty is the dom­i­nant force. Home­own­ers are most moti­vat­ed by low­er­ing util­i­ty bills, pro­tect­ing against ris­ing ener­gy costs, main­tain­ing or increas­ing home val­ue, and replac­ing old equip­ment. For Mil­len­ni­als, Gen Z, and urban home­own­ers, improv­ing air qual­i­ty, reduc­ing envi­ron­men­tal impact, and adopt­ing inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies car­ry more weight. This shift under­scores impor­tant dif­fer­ences in how seg­ments per­ceive val­ue beyond cost savings. 

The Repair-Replace Moment as a Trigger

Replac­ing old or fail­ing equip­ment is a key inflec­tion point, with many home­own­ers choos­ing to upgrade to more effi­cient or renew­able options when a replace­ment is already required. The study con­firms that effi­cien­cy upgrades are per­ceived as pro­vid­ing bet­ter long-term val­ue, mak­ing this a crit­i­cal moment for prod­uct mes­sag­ing, retail rec­om­men­da­tions, and con­trac­tor influence. 

Incentives Amplify Existing Motivations

Although gov­ern­ment incen­tives rarely serve as the pri­ma­ry moti­va­tion, they mean­ing­ful­ly influ­ence deci­sions — espe­cial­ly among younger, urban, high­er-income, and advanced DIY house­holds. Old­er, rur­al, and low­er-income home­own­ers remain less respon­sive, often because incen­tives feel less acces­si­ble or cred­i­ble. Incen­tive pro­grams work best when aligned with prac­ti­cal trig­gers such as equip­ment replace­ment or expect­ed cost savings. 

Barriers That Manufacturers Can Address

Cost is both a moti­va­tor and a bar­ri­er, par­tic­u­lar­ly for low­er-income and old­er home­own­ers who remain skep­ti­cal about ROI time­lines. Many home­own­ers are unsure whether they qual­i­fy for incen­tives, and few­er than one in five report high famil­iar­i­ty with pro­grams. Aware­ness declines sig­nif­i­cant­ly with age, income, and low­er DIY skill lev­els, point­ing to a crit­i­cal gap in clar­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ca­tion across segments. 

Man­u­fac­tur­ers can play a piv­otal role by address­ing these con­cerns direct­ly — clar­i­fy­ing eli­gi­bil­i­ty, sim­pli­fy­ing mes­sag­ing about expect­ed sav­ings, and build­ing trust with seg­ments that remain doubt­ful. High­light­ing short- and long-term cost sav­ings along­side clear ROI expla­na­tions can help reduce hes­i­ta­tion and build confidence.

Using Research to Tailor Messaging

HIRI’s Gov­ern­ment Incen­tives and Ener­gy Retro­fit study offers a com­pre­hen­sive view of adop­tion pat­terns, moti­va­tors, bar­ri­ers, and demo­graph­ic dif­fer­ences. For man­u­fac­tur­ing brands and retail­ers, these insights can sup­port mes­sag­ing that empha­sizes afford­abil­i­ty and trust, aligns prod­uct rec­om­men­da­tions with prac­ti­cal upgrade trig­gers, and bet­ter edu­cates con­sumers on incen­tive eligibility.

Explore the full study

Dive deep­er into the data to under­stand home­own­er behav­ior across atti­tu­di­nal and demo­graph­ic seg­ments. HIRI mem­bers have access to the full report along with addi­tion­al home improve­ment research that can sup­port strat­e­gy, prod­uct posi­tion­ing, and cus­tomer engagement.

Mem­bers have access to the full reports and raw data sets used to com­pile the infor­ma­tion in this info­graph­ic, includ­ing the Gov­ern­ment Incen­tives & Ener­gy Retro­fit Study.

HIRI mem­bers gain access to the raw data behind info­graph­ics like this one, to slice-and-dice the raw data to suit the needs of their own cus­tomer insights teams and answer cross-depart­­­­men­­­­tal ques­tions about how to take home improve­ment prod­ucts to market.

Join the ranks of the top man­u­fac­tur­ers and retail­ers in the home improve­ment space. Book your mem­ber­ship con­sul­ta­tion to learn more about what kinds of mem­ber exclu­­sive infor­ma­tion your team would have access to.