The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) contracted with NMR Group in early 2023 to conduct its seventh Market Progress Evaluation Report (MPER) for the alliance’s Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) program. The findings of this MPER will help inform and refine program interventions in the market. Study objectives included:
- Estimating 2022 penetration of HPWHs in the region with sales broken out by key attributes;
- Evaluating the program’s performance over the course of 2022 by measuring against a subset of market progress indicators;
- Assessing the effectiveness of the 2022 “Boring but Efficient” downstream marketing campaign; and
- Conducting a review of the program’s logic model.
The report concludes that the program has developed a strong foundation for HPWH adoption while also identifying areas for continued attention. Report findings highlighted that increasing consumer awareness of HPWHs remains a pivotal part of Market Transformation for the program. While consumer awareness is high at 56%, water heaters in general are not a top-of-mind appliance among consumers.
In addition, the report suggests that installer awareness across the four states plays a critical role in increasing consumer adoption of the product. Findings show that installers are increasingly aware of HPWHs. In fact, nearly half of installers considered themselves very familiar with HPWHs and had worked regularly with them, though this trend is more pronounced in Washington and Oregon compared to Idaho and Montana. Finally, report findings identified the potential for installations in existing homes and recommends program implementers work with installers and focus on HPWH adoption in those homes.
This report has been updated with a memorandum at the end of the document as of 3/18/24.
