• Research Report
  • Energy Efficiency Policy
  • Homes and Buildings

    • Jul 27, 2026

    Efficiency Saves: Cutting Energy Waste Can Save $31,000 per Household

    The United States faces interlocking energy challenges: rising home energy bills and gasoline prices; new demand for electricity from data centers and other loads; high greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. 

    Now, a new era of energy efficiency progress in our buildings, transportation, and industry is needed to meet this moment. This wide-ranging study finds a massive opportunity.

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    An Indian couple sitting on a couch looking at energy bills.

    The United States faces interlocking energy challenges: rising home energy bills and gasoline prices; new demand for electricity from data centers and other loads; high greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. 

    Now, a new era of energy efficiency progress in our buildings, transportation, and industry is needed to meet this moment. This wide-ranging study finds a massive opportunity.

    Energy efficiency improvements and demand flexibility measures completed between now and 2050 could:

    Save about $4.8 trillion in energy and related costs, equivalent to almost $31,000 per household.
    From electric efficiency measures alone, reduce peak electric demand by the output of 400+ large power plants.
    Spur an additional 1 million net jobs per year, on average.
    Reduce climate pollution by one-third by 2050.
    Cut small particulate and other air pollution at scale to avert approximately 280,000 deaths.
    energy cost savings chart
    Energy cost savings by year in real 2025 dollars from the set of energy efficiency and demand flexibility measures

    Key opportunity areas

    Buildings
    Equipment efficiency
    Reduce waste from new appliances, equipment, and lighting, including shifting from inefficient electric heating to heat pumps.
    Zero-emission new buildings
    Make new homes and commercial buildings more efficient so remaining energy needs can be met with clean electricity.
    Existing building improvements
    Improve insulation and air sealing and switch from fuels to heat pumps and other efficient electric equipment.
    Industry
    Industrial efficiency and electric heat
    Reduce energy waste from industrial processes and use efficient electrical equipment for low- and medium-temperature heat.
    Reduced industrial materials
    Reduce the need for industrial materials and products through lower waste, efficient utilization, and longer lifetimes.
    Transportation
    Efficient and electric vehicles
    Improve the efficiency of new cars, SUVs, trucks, and buses, including by running more of them on electric batteries.
    Transportation system efficiency
    Reduce the need for driving cars and trucks by improving the availability of and access to other transportation options.
    Grid
    Demand flexibility
    Shift electricity demand away from times of high demand on power plants and the grid and toward times when abundant sun and wind power are available.

    Related Resources

    Bridging the Equity Gap for Utility Energy Efficiency Programs
    equity
  • Research Report
  • Affordability and Energy Equity
  • Energy Efficiency Policy
  • Homes and Buildings
  • Utilities and the Power Sector

    • Bridging the Equity Gap for Utility Energy Efficiency Programs

    Note: This report was updated on July 31, 2026, to reflect data from Commonwealth Edison received after publication that showed additional spending on low-income efficiency programs. Resultant updates to the analysis yielded an increase in the overall average spending (of all utilities in the sample) on low-income programs in 2024. This increased the average share of budgets dedicated to programming for low-income populations to 14.1% and reduced the average “equity gap” to 13.8%; each change was less than 1 percentage point. ComEd-specific results were updated throughout. Additionally, the per-household savings data for Baltimore Gas and Electric was corrected, and that resulted in BGE no longer being listed in the top quartile of utilities in that category.

    Jul 31, 2026

    Anna Johnson, Jasmine Mah, Alex Aquino, Forest Bradley-Wright

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