Holistic Home Retrofits: How Whole Home Repair Drives Energy Savings and Non-Energy Benefits

Across the country, cities and states are expanding weatherization programs to create all-inclusive home retrofit programs. Research is still ongoing to assess how these wraparound home services enhance energy savings and non-energy impacts (NEIs) related to health and well-being. Join us as we discuss how the Philadelphia Energy Authority’s Built to Last (BTL) Program works as an administrative backbone that layers, coordinates, and supplements existing programs and services to perform whole-home improvements on low-income properties, starting from stabilizing the home with basic systems repairs and ending with electrification and solar. A team of building science experts at New Ecology and NEI researchers at Three3, together with BTL staff, are working to create a data-driven model for scope prioritization through a DOE Weatherization Enhancement & Innovation grant. New Ecology provides training on decarbonization best practices and optimizes scoping for carbon footprint and energy burden reduction. Three3 produces comprehensive valuation of the program's health and well-being impacts. By attending this session, participants will have a better understanding about collaborating with research partners, maximizing multiple funding resources, prioritizing home measures based on energy and carbon savings, attributing new and previously studied NEIs, and using your own home retrofit data for measuring impact.