Somewhere long ago and far away, someone decided that the value proposition for energy efficiency was saving money. “Everybody loves to save money,” these energy efficiency marketers likely thought, “and since efficient products use less energy than conventional ones, we should lead with it!”

You all know the drill, though. Most Americans don’t actually see the savings. Utility rates go up sometimes and negate the savings, bad behavior happens (they use the efficient products as a reason to behave in inefficient ways) and/or extreme weather happens and utility bills appear higher, not lower, than they did before the efficient products were purchased. And, in truth, for most folks to see significant savings, they’d have to really spend some money for a deep retrofit. Although the monthly utility bill savings may be noticeable, the cash outlay upfront would be so high that it would take years for the savings to offset the investment.

Read more (Shelton Grp)