Homeowners in the United States are being very careful about making investments in home energy savings. According to a recent survey, they are demanding significant energy cost savings to justify any investments of time and money required to install highly efficient HVAC systems, and they have grown more skeptical about promises of a quick payback.
Last fall, Harris Interactive conducted a phone survey of 1,007 adults for Emerson Climate Technologies. The results revealed that only 12 percent of adults surveyed were willing to invest more than $2,000 in an energy-efficient home upgrade that would pay for itself in two years. This attitude leads to challenges for HVAC contractors to upsell systems based on efficiency. The Emerson survey also showed that while consumers are aware of the energy demands of their HVAC systems, they are making smaller energy efficiency investments, unaware of valuable tax incentives.