Whitepapers
Market Segment Characterization for Heat Pump Electrification
By aligning technical innovation with economic and policy frameworks, Vermont can lead in industrial decarbonization and electrification through industrial heat pumps for low- and medium-temperature process heat.
Energy Resilience: Estimating Loss Economics
Energy resilience planners can better quantify potential losses, improve cost-benefit analyses, and prioritize investment as part of disaster recovery efforts.
Closing the Loop: Lifecycle Refrigerant Management for Vermont’s Residential Heat Pumps
Drawing on interviews, survey data, and a literature review, this paper identifies strategies to reduce barriers, align incentives, improve outcomes, and support best practices for refrigerant management across Vermont’s growing heat pump market.
Increasing Access to Energy Efficiency: Piloting community engagement & program adaptation initiatives
This Interim DSS Equity Report collects the many ways Efficiency Vermont was able to identify and address persistent barriers that have historically excluded many Vermonters from participating in energy-saving programs. Beyond financial incentives, this included building meaningful relationships with trusted community partners, listening deeply to the lived experiences of underserved customers, and using those insights to reshape programs in ways that are more responsive, flexible, and culturally relevant.
2025 Vermont Heat Pump Action Plan
The Vermont Residential Heat Pump Action Plan is driven by a central goal: to significantly reduce household greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the state. This plan outlines a strategic approach to achieving that goal by increasing the adoption of heat pump technologies and optimizing their usage in Vermont's residential sector, while ensuring affordability for all residents.
On the Way to Viability: Residential Bidirectional Charging
V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) allows an electric vehicle’s battery to discharge energy to external loads. Despite the promise of V2X, such as using an EV as a home power backup system, many challenges (costs, interoperability hurdles, compatible EVs) remain.
Multifamily Passive House Certification: A New Reach Standard for Vermont?
Efficiency Vermont should consider supporting Passive House certification as a new “reach goal” for multifamily new construction projects to accelerate market transformation and cultivate broader workforce alignment with high-performance standards.
Mobile and Manufactured Housing Market Characterization
Assessing the landscape of energy efficiency programs available to mobile and manufactured housing (MH) in Vermont, this research offers recommendations around customer engagement, funding and financing, and workforce capacity to better serve MH customers.
Heating Pattern Cluster Analysis of Winter AMI Data
Targeted approaches are needed to help transition customers from price-volatile fossil fuels to more efficient and regulated electricity for heating and cooling. Analyzing energy use patterns alongside cold temperature data revealed likely ideal candidates for electrification programs.
Energy Resilience Planning Framework
Efficiency Vermont surveyed existing resources to develop a shared definition of energy resilience suitable for Vermont that can guide planners through a comprehensive strategy to prepare for, adapt to, and recover from energy disruptions.
2024 Vermont Heat Pump Market Assessment
This Market Assessment investigates the status of heat pump technology, availability, accessibility, and adoption in Vermont as of fall 2024. The assessment includes cold-climate heat pumps used for space heating and cooling, and heat pump water heaters, with a focus on the residential market.
Load Shape Segmentation for Better Grid Stability and Increased Customer Benefit
Utilizing advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) data, this research project demonstrated that the use of load clustering can help identify typical load patterns within a population, revealing use patterns well-suited for certain efficiency measures or programs.
Industrialized Weatherization: Comprehensive Deep Energy Retrofits with Prefabricated Panel Block Wall Insulation
This research project offers a possible prototype for achieving Vermont’s building weatherization goals by evaluating a super-insulated wall retrofitting process using prefabricated panel block wall insulation, a form of industrialized weatherization or industrialized construction developed by the Fraunhofer USA Center for Manufacturing Innovation.
Evaluating Equity and Justice Impacts of Energy Efficiency Projects
This research project sought to determine which energy equity metrics could provide the greatest insight into equitable program design, and recommended strategies to address equity in both C&I and residential markets.
Enhancing Carbon Reduction Estimation: A Time-Centric Analysis of Vermont's Clean Energy Programs
Vermont’s clean energy program efforts now include transitioning fossil fuel energy use onto an increasingly renewable electric grid and shifting energy time of use to periods where renewable energy is most abundant. Quantifying carbon reduction as a result of these efforts might require greater consideration for the time component of energy use.
Efficiency Vermont’s Approach to Energy Resilience
As the energy industry undergoes a rapid increase in the use of renewable energy, Efficiency Vermont is supporting customers and Vermont’s energy system in achieving resilience.
2023 Focused Communities Key Findings
Learn how Efficiency Vermont is making energy-saving tips easy to understand for everyone, no matter what language they speak. Find out about our new efforts to make our services accessible to all Vermonters.
Vermont's 2023 Energy Burden Report
Vermonters spend, on average, 11 percent of their household income on energy. That’s more than one in every ten dollars spent on heating, driving, and keeping the lights on.
Evaluating Equity and Justice Impacts of Energy Efficiency Projects
Researchers looked at equality, equity and justice in energy efficiency projects, and identified ways to capture the broader societal impacts of efficiency efforts to both boost equitable outcomes and foster thriving communities.
Energy Resilience: Three Multi-Year Energy Resilience Demonstration Projects
This paper evaluated three Efficiency Vermont demonstration projects around energy resilience: a microgrid in a housing complex, heating/cooling projects using phase change materials, and modeling around indoor temperature change after a power outage. Insights from this evaluation can inform design and construction professionals, as well as regulators, about the most cost-effective ways to implement resilience, from simple and inexpensive options to expensive projects.