Overview

Sponsored by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), and administered by the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance APT implemented the Illinois Energy Education and Outreach program in 2005 as an outreach promotion to educate homeowners about how to increase energy savings during the winter.

During the one-day events at 25 Menards locations and three True Value hardware stores across the state, trained retailers gave the homeowners winter energy savings tips and techniques as well as free programmable thermostats. We were able to keep the cost of the program low, as we were able to utilize state’s KEEP WARM ILLINOIS marketing and education materials and participating retailers only had to devote staff and space to host the 'clinics'.

Implementation

The DCEO approached MEEA to develop this consumer education program that could also tie into the state's newly created KEEP WARM ILLINOIS Program. MEEA created a unique approach for the program in order to achieve the goal of maximizing incentive dollars while attracting the greatest number of homeowners to the events. Facing a winter with unprecedented natural gas prices for home heating, Illinois homeowners were eager to find ways in which they, themselves, could implement changes and procedures in their own homes in order to reduce these costs.  The program was designed, coordinated and rolled out with a statewide marketing campaign in a matter of weeks.

Summary of Results

In One Day:

• 11,295 programmable thermostats were distributed
• A total of $1,603,890 saved off the bottom line of Illinois residents' heating bills in the first year
• A total of $24,058,350 saved off the bottom line of Illinois resident's heating bills over the thermostats lifetime