--- title: Energy Efficient Improvements May Not Be Worth It | TIME description: A new study says government-funded energy efficiency upgrades proved to cost more than what they saved residents. canonical: https://time.com/video/wu59GHs3/ og:title: Energy Efficient Improvements May Not Be Worth It og:description: A new study says government-funded energy efficiency upgrades proved to cost more than what they saved residents. og:url: https://time.com/video/wu59GHs3/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wu59GHs3/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Energy Efficient Improvements May Not Be Worth It twitter:description: A new study says government-funded energy efficiency upgrades proved to cost more than what they saved residents. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wu59GHs3/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Energy Efficient Improvements May Not Be Worth It > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Energy Efficient Improvements May Not Be Worth It [Watch (HLS stream): Energy Efficient Improvements May Not Be Worth It](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wu59GHs3.m3u8) (1:43)  _Published 2015-06-24. A new study says government-funded energy efficiency upgrades proved to cost more than what they saved residents._ --- Jul 27, 2023 6:28 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Six Ways to Save Money on Your Energy Usage](/video/JzB6L38R/) ### Six Ways to Save Money on Your Energy Usage [Time Explains: Energy Efficiency](/video/DDVcGaZL/) ### Time Explains: Energy Efficiency [Energy Efficiency](/video/zbqRyiaG/) ### Energy Efficiency --- ## Transcript Upgrading your home to be more energy efficient may cost may than it's worth. A study from the University of Chicago and University of California says the benefits may not be as big as you think. The study focused on the US's Weatherization Assistance Program, the nation's largest residential energy efficiency program Helping out about 7 million low income families since 1976. The program generally helps families get insulation installed, weather stripping laid down, or furnaces updated, among other things. The problem is this study said The upfront investment costs are about twice the actual energy savings. The homes, on average, received about $ 5, 000 worth of upgrades, paid for by the government program, at no costs to the homeowner The upgrades reduced month by month costs by about 10- 20 %, but only saved about $ 2, 400 dollars by the end of the upgrades lifetimes. It's a problem those in the industry are aware of. Research Director for Resources for the Future told the Washington Post: " There's a lot riding on energy efficiency programs And we need to understand better what we know and don't know about them. The study didn't address a few of the newer and more advanced forms of making homes energy efficient. As weather technology, along with the weather itself, Constantly changes. Products like Nest can help control a home's temperature without manual adjustments, and new smartphone and smart watch technology aims to give you more control over household items. Going out. Going out. Look at that. Her lights dim down. Her air conditioning starts to turn off. The robot vacuum cleaner is alive. One of the study's researchers said that energy efficiency could be key to fighting climate change, but he called for more field testing of efficiency programs to see which offered the most potential. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Energy Efficient Improvements May Not Be Worth It","description":"A new study says government-funded energy efficiency upgrades proved to cost more than what they saved residents.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wu59GHs3/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-06-24T18:14:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wu59GHs3.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/wu59GHs3/","duration":"PT1M43S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/wu59GHs3/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```