HomeBoost Energy Audit App: Cut Utility Bills Smart [2025]

How Home Boost is Disrupting Home Energy Audits

Your electricity bill landed in your inbox this morning, and it's higher than last month. Again. You glance at the subject line: "You're using more energy than your neighbors." The message hits differently when you realize you don't actually know why.

This is the friction point that Selina Tobaccowala noticed when she started digging into the home energy market. She'd just sold her previous startup and was looking for something meaningful to build. Her kids were leaving sticky notes around the house saying "turn off the lights," and she realized most homeowners face the same problem: they know they should be more efficient, but they're stuck on what actually matters.

Enter Home Boost, a startup that's reimagining how homeowners get home energy assessments. Instead of waiting weeks for an auditor to show up and spend hours in your home (often trying to upsell you on expensive HVAC replacements), Home Boost mails you a Boost Box and lets you do the heavy lifting yourself through an app. The company has already partnered with major utilities like Central Hudson, Omaha Public Power District, and Avista, making assessments affordable for hundreds of thousands of homeowners.

But here's what makes this interesting: Home Boost isn't just solving a consumer problem. It's aligning incentives across an entire ecosystem. Utilities want you to use less energy. Homeowners want lower bills. Contractors want qualified leads. And Home Boost sits in the middle, making it all work.

Let's dig into how this actually works, why it matters, and what it means for the future of home energy management.

The Problem With Traditional Energy Audits

Traditional home energy audits have a trust problem. Homeowners shell out between

On paper, this sounds thorough. In reality, it often feels like a sales pitch with a clipboard.

The issue is structural. When you're paying an auditor directly, they have an incentive to recommend expensive fixes. A new HVAC system costs

Utilities have tried to solve this by offering their own audit programs. They hire or contract with energy auditors and subsidize the cost because they benefit from reduced energy consumption. But these programs vary wildly in quality and coverage. Some utilities offer comprehensive assessments. Others phone it in. And accessing them requires navigating utility websites that often look like they were designed in 2005.

Moreover, utilities are incentivized to push specific solutions that benefit their network. A natural gas utility might recommend weatherization over heat pump conversions. An electric utility might push heat pumps aggressively. The auditor is technically independent, but they're working within a system with built-in biases.

The result? Homeowners either skip the audit altogether or go through it and feel unclear about what to prioritize. That's where Home Boost found its opening.

HomeBoost shows significantly higher follow-through rates and average savings compared to traditional audits, indicating a more effective model. Estimated data based on provided ranges.

How Home Boost's Boost Box Actually Works

Home Boost's system is elegantly simple on the surface but surprisingly sophisticated underneath. Here's what happens when you order an assessment:

You receive a physical box in the mail containing three items: an infrared thermal camera, a blacklight, and instructions to download the Home Boost app. The total kit costs

You then walk through your home with the app open. The thermal camera is handheld and connects wirelessly to your phone. As you scan walls, windows, doors, and baseboards, the app visualizes where heat or cool air is escaping. You'll literally see cold air leaking around window frames, through poorly sealed outlets, and along poorly insulated basement walls. It's hard to argue with what the camera shows you.

The blacklight reveals which light fixtures in your home could be upgraded to LEDs. Modern homes often have a mix of incandescent, halogen, CFL, and LED bulbs. The blacklight highlights which ones are costing you money. You take photos and keep moving.

Here's where it gets clever: the app uses computer vision and machine learning to analyze your thermal scan data. It doesn't just show you the problem areas. It calculates the financial impact of fixing each issue. It estimates how much you'd save annually if you sealed that basement crack, replaced those single-pane windows, or upgraded your attic insulation.

Then comes the game-changing part. The app automatically looks up available rebates based on your location. Many states and utilities offer rebate programs for specific upgrades. A heat pump installation might qualify for a

Your final report is automatically generated with ranked recommendations sorted by cost-effectiveness. Instead of "you should replace your HVAC," you get "upgrading three windows will save you

It's not flashy, but it's honest. It's also faster than a traditional audit. Most homeowners complete the process in two to four hours instead of the eight to ten hours an auditor might spend.

The Economics of Energy Audit Pricing

Understanding Home Boost's pricing strategy requires looking at the entire value chain. Traditional energy audits create friction at multiple points:

Traditional audit cost breakdown:

• Auditor hourly rate:
  $50-$
  100/hour
• Time per home: 8-10 hours
• Equipment and travel:
  $2,000-$
  5,000 annually (amortized per home)
• Report generation: 1-2 hours at auditor rates
• Total cost to homeowner:
  $300-$
  600 (sometimes covered by utilities)

Home Boost cost breakdown:

• Boost Box manufacturing and shipping: ~
  $25-$
  35
• App infrastructure and ML processing: ~
  $5-$
  10 per assessment
• Customer support: ~$5
• Utility integration and rebate lookup: ~$2
• Total cost to Home Boost: ~
  $40-$
  50
• **Price to homeowner:
  $99** (typically subsidized to$
  19-$0 by utilities)

Home Boost's unit economics are fundamentally better, but they're not trying to undercut auditors on price alone. They're solving a different problem: scalability and availability.

An auditor can complete five to eight homes per week. That's 250 homes per auditor per year. A Home Boost customer can complete one assessment in an evening. If 10% of a utility's customer base does a Home Boost assessment, that's equivalent to hiring 50-100 new auditors. Most utilities can't afford that.

Home Boost's partnership strategy leverages this. They offer utilities a way to reach more customers without hiring more staff. Utilities cover the cost because the alternative is not offering assessments at all, or offering them to only 5% of their customer base.

For contractors, the model is equally compelling. Home Boost is developing a contractor version of the app that lets professionals use the same workflow for their own customers. This cuts the time contractors spend on initial assessments, letting them handle more jobs annually. Contractors also get access to Home Boost's customer pipeline—homeowners who've completed assessments and identified specific upgrades they want to pursue.

HomeBoost is more cost-effective and faster than traditional audits, with a higher rate of upgrade adoption (Estimated data).

Why Utilities Are Betting on Home Boost

Understanding why utilities are partnering with Home Boost requires understanding their incentive structure. In the US, most utilities operate under a system called "decoupling" or regulatory incentive programs. Historically, utilities made money based on how much energy they sold. More consumption equals more revenue.

But that created perverse incentives. Why would a utility help customers reduce energy use if it reduced their profits? Regulators realized this and introduced regulatory mechanisms that let utilities profit from helping customers be more efficient. The details vary by state, but the general idea is: if a utility helps customers reduce consumption below a baseline, the utility keeps some of the savings.

This flipped the incentive structure. Now utilities actually profit from selling less energy, as long as they help customers reduce it through efficiency programs.

Home Boost fits perfectly into this new reality. It's a tool that helps utilities demonstrate to regulators that they're seriously investing in customer efficiency. It's also scalable. A utility can say, "We helped 100,000 customers complete energy assessments," rather than "We helped 5,000 customers through traditional audits."

The math works. Central Hudson, serving about 300,000 customers, committed to offering Home Boost assessments to a significant portion of its base. Omaha Public Power, with roughly 600,000 customers, did the same. These aren't small pilots. These are strategic rollouts.

Utilities also benefit from the data. Every Home Boost assessment generates anonymized information about where homes lose energy, which upgrades customers choose, and how effective those upgrades are. This creates a dataset that helps utilities understand their customer base better and design more effective efficiency programs.

The AI and Machine Learning Behind the Scenes

The technology powering Home Boost is more sophisticated than it first appears. The app isn't just displaying thermal camera footage. It's using computer vision and machine learning to interpret that footage at scale.

Here's what's happening under the hood:

When you scan a wall with the thermal camera, the app captures hundreds of images. Computer vision algorithms analyze these images to identify specific thermal anomalies. A window frame appears as a different temperature than the surrounding wall, indicating air leakage. An outlet box shows a temperature gradient pointing to poor insulation. A roof eave appears brighter in thermal imaging, suggesting insufficient attic insulation.

The system doesn't require perfect manual annotation. It's trained on thousands of thermal scans from professional auditors, so it learns to recognize patterns. Over time, as more customers use Home Boost, the model gets better at identifying issues and estimating their severity.

The financial modeling is equally sophisticated. The app needs to know:

• Your local climate zone and heating/cooling degree days
• Your current energy mix (electric, natural gas, fuel oil, etc.)
• Your utility rates (which vary by utility, time of year, and consumption tier)
• Which rebates you qualify for based on your zip code and home type
• Realistic costs for various upgrades in your region

This requires integrating multiple data sources: NOAA climate data, utility rate schedules (which are public but fragmented), state and federal rebate databases, and contractor cost data. Home Boost has built a data pipeline that keeps this information current. When a state launches a new rebate program, the app reflects it within days.

The recommendation engine then ranks upgrades by cost-effectiveness. The formula is straightforward in concept but complex in execution:

Cost-Effectiveness Score = (Annual Savings × Equipment Lifetime) / (Total Cost - Available Rebates)

But calculating each variable accurately requires accounting for factors like seasonal variation in energy use, the interaction between different upgrades (if you seal air leaks, your HVAC doesn't need to work as hard), and regional variations in labor costs and rebate amounts.

Home Boost's approach here is pragmatic rather than academic. They're not trying to create a perfect model. They're trying to create a model that's good enough to be useful and honest about its assumptions. Reports include confidence intervals and notes about which estimates are based on local averages versus direct measurements.

Comparison With Traditional Energy Audits and Digital Alternatives

Home Boost operates in a competitive landscape with three categories of alternatives: traditional audits, utility programs, and purely digital tools.

Traditional In-Person Audits

• Cost:
  $300-$
  600 per home
• Time: 8-10 hours for auditor
• Coverage: <10% of utilities' customer bases
• Accuracy: High (direct measurements)
• Bias risk: Moderate to high (auditor recommendations influenced by sales opportunities)

Utility-Run Audit Programs

• Cost: Usually free or
  $50-$
  100 (subsidized)
• Time: Varies widely, typically 4-8 hours
• Coverage: 5-20% of customer bases
• Accuracy: Variable by program
• Bias risk: Moderate (utilities may push specific solutions)

Digital-Only Tools (no physical hardware)

• Cost: Usually free or
  $20-$
  50
• Time: 30 minutes to 1 hour
• Coverage: Unlimited (no logistics required)
• Accuracy: Low to moderate (relies on self-reported data and photos)
• Bias risk: Low (no incentive to upsell)

Home Boost

• Cost:
  $99 (typically subsidized to$
  19-$0)
• Time: 2-4 hours (homeowner)
• Coverage: Limited by utility partnerships, but growing
• Accuracy: Moderate to high (thermal camera and computer vision)
• Bias risk: Low (no direct sales relationship with contractor or utility)

Home Boost sits in the middle of this spectrum. It's more accurate than purely digital tools because of the thermal camera. It's cheaper and faster than traditional audits. It doesn't have the inherent biases of traditional audits because there's no auditor incentivized to sell upgrades.

The main limitations are availability (only in utility service territories where Home Boost has partnered) and the fact that it's a DIY process. Some homeowners prefer having an expert walk them through their home.

Sealing basement air leaks offers the quickest payback period of 2.8 years, while replacing windows, despite significant rebates, has a much longer payback period of 33 years. Estimated data based on typical assessments.

Why Homeowners Are Adopting Home Boost

The adoption pattern reveals something interesting about what homeowners actually want. When surveys ask, "Would you like a free home energy audit?" adoption rates are low (typically 5-15%). When Home Boost offers the same thing with a thermal camera and an app that does the thinking for you, adoption rates are much higher.

This suggests homeowners have three main concerns with traditional audits:

1. Distrust of salesperson bias. An auditor spending eight hours in your home and recommending a $10,000 HVAC upgrade feels suspicious. Home Boost removes this dynamic. The app doesn't care if you upgrade your HVAC or not. It just shows you the financial impact either way.

2. Analysis paralysis. Getting a 40-page audit report with dozens of recommendations is overwhelming. Which upgrades should you prioritize? Traditional audits sometimes include a ranking, but it's often unclear how the ranking was calculated. Home Boost's algorithm is transparent: "This upgrade has an 8-year payback period and qualifies for $600 in rebates."

3. Control and engagement. Walking through your own home with a thermal camera is genuinely interesting. You discover things. You see exactly where the problems are. This creates buy-in. If you're physically walking around with the device, you're more likely to act on the findings.

Homeowners who complete Home Boost assessments are also more likely to follow through on recommendations. Early data suggests that assessments lead to actual upgrades 40-50% of the time, compared to 15-20% for traditional audits. That's a 2x to 3x improvement.

The financial accessibility also matters. Even with utility subsidies, a

The Contractor Integration Opportunity

Home Boost is developing an opportunity that traditional auditors have struggled with: connecting homeowners with contractors who can execute on recommendations.

When a homeowner gets a traditional audit and decides to upgrade their windows, what do they do next? They Google "window replacement near me," get slammed with 47 contractors all claiming they're the best, and spend weeks getting quotes. Some contractors will show up and re-do the entire assessment because they don't trust the auditor's recommendations. This duplication is wasteful.

Home Boost's contractor app changes this. A contractor gets access to the Home Boost assessment data directly. They know the thermal signature of the home, which specific areas need attention, and which upgrades the homeowner is considering. They can provide an estimate without re-doing work.

For homeowners, this means fewer contractor visits and more accurate quotes. For contractors, it means qualified leads (someone has already decided they want an upgrade) and better project scoping.

Home Boost is positioning itself as a lead generation platform for contractors. Homeowners who complete assessments can opt-in to see contractor recommendations. Contractors pay Home Boost for access to this pipeline. This creates a three-sided marketplace: utilities subsidize assessments, homeowners get insights and recommendations, and contractors get qualified leads.

This is where Home Boost's long-term value lies. The assessment tool is valuable, but the contractor network is the real business.

Climate Impact and the Alignment Opportunity

There's a genuinely unusual thing happening here: everyone's incentives are aligned toward the same goal.

Utilities want to reduce consumption (they profit from it under current regulation). Homeowners want to lower their bills (they save money). Contractors want to complete projects (they make revenue). And all of this reduces energy consumption, which reduces carbon emissions.

This alignment is rare in climate tech. Most climate solutions involve some party being incentivized to act against their economic interest, which requires subsidies or regulation to force the behavior.

Not so here. Home Boost is profitable, utilities benefit, homeowners save money, and the climate improves. It's one of those elegant solutions where market incentives and environmental goals actually point in the same direction.

The climate impact is significant. The US residential sector accounts for roughly 6 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent annually, or about 20% of total US emissions. The average home energy upgrade (better insulation, heat pump conversion, window replacement, etc.) reduces heating and cooling energy use by 20-40%. If Home Boost helps 1 million homeowners complete assessments and 50% of those complete at least one recommended upgrade, that's potentially 600 million metric tons of CO2 savings annually (assuming average home energy use and conservative efficiency improvements).

Scaling to that level would require Home Boost or similar platforms to reach significant market penetration. Right now, they're still early. But the opportunity is substantial.

HomeBoost significantly reduces the cost of energy audits by leveraging technology and partnerships, making it more scalable and accessible compared to traditional methods.

How Home Boost's Rebate Integration Works

One of Home Boost's quiet superpowers is rebate integration. This is unsexy but genuinely valuable.

Home energy upgrades in the US are supported by a patchwork of incentive programs: federal tax credits, state rebates, utility rebates, and manufacturer rebates. These programs overlap, have different eligibility requirements, and change frequently.

A homeowner considering a heat pump installation might qualify for:

• Federal Inflation Reduction Act tax credit: up to $8,000
• State energy efficiency rebate:
  $1,000-$
  3,000 (varies by state)
• Utility rebate:
  $500-$
  1,000 (varies by utility)
• Manufacturer rebate:
  $500-$
  2,000 (varies by manufacturer and timing)

That's a potential

Home Boost aggregates this information. The app knows which rebates you qualify for based on your location and project type. It displays the effective cost after all rebates. It can even help with applications.

This is valuable for two reasons. First, it increases the likelihood that homeowners actually take advantage of available incentives. Studies suggest that 30-40% of people who qualify for rebates don't claim them because the process is too complicated. Simplifying this increases take-up.

Second, it changes the perceived cost of upgrades. A

Home Boost has built relationships with state energy offices and utility programs to keep rebate information current. This requires ongoing coordination, but it's a defensible moat. A competing service would need to build the same integration infrastructure.

Scaling Challenges and Market Barriers

Despite the elegant solution and aligned incentives, Home Boost faces real scaling challenges.

Utility partnership dependency. Home Boost's growth depends on utility relationships. Each utility adds deals with requires sales effort, contract negotiation, and integration work. There are roughly 3,000 electric utilities in the US. Home Boost has partnerships with a handful. Expanding to hundreds of utilities is feasible but time-consuming.

Regional variation in incentive programs. The rebate landscape is fragmented. What works in California (aggressive state incentives) might not work in Wyoming (limited state programs). Home Boost's rebate database needs to be accurate and current in each region. This requires ongoing maintenance and creates operational overhead.

Contractor network development. The contractor pipeline is where long-term value lies, but building this network is hard. Contractors are independent, geographically distributed, and skeptical of new platforms. Home Boost needs to reach enough contractors in each market to make the service useful for homeowners.

Adoption among renters. About 35% of US households are renters. Home Boost's model assumes homeowners who can make upgrade decisions. Renters typically can't. Expanding to the rental market would require a different business model.

Competition from incumbents. Traditional energy audit companies are taking note. Some are building digital tools. Utilities might eventually build internal platforms. Home Boost's lead is real but not insurmountable.

The Broader Context: Digitizing Home Energy

Home Boost is one of several startups digitizing the home energy space. The broader trend is about removing friction from energy efficiency.

This includes:

• Smart thermostats that learn usage patterns and optimize schedules
• Home energy management platforms that aggregate data from smart meters and devices
• Virtual power plants that bundle distributed energy resources (solar, batteries, EVs) at scale
• AI-powered energy audits like Home Boost
• Energy marketplaces that match homeowners with contractors

These tools are individually useful but increasingly powerful in combination. A homeowner who completes a Home Boost assessment, installs smart thermostats, adds solar, and joins a virtual power plant has a fully optimized home energy system.

Utilities are pushing this integration because it helps them manage the grid more efficiently. Residential demand is increasingly variable (thanks to solar and EVs), making the grid harder to balance. Platforms that help utilities understand and adjust residential demand are valuable.

This is where the market is headed: away from one-off audits toward continuous energy management systems that evolve as technology changes.

HomeBoost offers a balanced approach with moderate cost, time, and high accuracy, while minimizing bias risk compared to traditional and digital-only audits.

What Makes Home Boost's Founding Story Significant

Selina Tobaccowala's background is worth noting. She was president and CTO of Survey Monkey, a company built on one key insight: make surveys easy enough that anyone can create one.

She's applying the same principle to energy audits. Her background in surveys taught her that many problems that seem like they require expert consultation actually don't. You can empower non-experts to do the work themselves if you provide the right tools and remove the cognitive overhead.

That's exactly what Home Boost does. Traditional energy audits assume you need a licensed professional to identify efficiency problems. Home Boost says: "You can do this with a thermal camera and an app that tells you what matters."

This isn't revolutionary technology. Thermal cameras are commodity items (under $100 now). The computer vision that interprets the footage is standard applied AI. The rebate database is just data aggregation. The value is in the system integration and simplification.

But sometimes the most valuable innovation isn't breakthrough technology. It's taking existing tools, combining them thoughtfully, and removing barriers to adoption. That's what Home Boost has done.

Future Developments and Market Evolution

If Home Boost scales, where does the company go from here?

International expansion. The business model works everywhere. Thermal imaging works in every climate. Rebate systems exist in most developed countries (though they're structured differently). Home Boost could expand to Europe, Canada, and Australia where utility partnerships and energy efficiency incentives exist.

Deeper contractor integration. Right now, Home Boost connects homeowners with contractors. Over time, they could provide contractors with tools for project management, financing, and insurance verification. This deepens the relationship and increases switching costs.

Financing offerings. Many homeowners interested in efficiency upgrades are blocked by upfront cost. Even with rebates, a $5,000 heat pump installation requires capital. Home Boost could partner with financing companies or offer their own FICO-agnostic financing (based on the energy savings, not credit history). Some utilities already offer this; Home Boost could expand it.

Real estate integration. Home Boost assessments create data about a home's efficiency. Real estate agents, lenders, and appraisers all care about this. Home Boost could provide efficiency ratings that appear on real estate listings or homebuying platforms. This would influence home values and buying decisions.

Beyond residential. The same principles apply to small commercial spaces. A restaurant, retail store, or small office building could benefit from similar assessments. The hardware and software would need adaptation, but the business model is portable.

The Role of Automation and AI-Powered Workflow Optimization

While Home Boost leverages AI for analysis, the broader opportunity in home energy involves workflow automation.

Consider the full journey: assessment → rebate research → contractor quotes → financing → project management → verification. Each step involves manual work. Platforms like Runable are beginning to enable automation across these workflows, generating documents, reports, and communication automatically.

For Home Boost, this could mean:

• Automatically generating permit applications based on assessment data
• Creating standardized project scopes and contracts
• Automating rebate application paperwork
• Generating project timelines and communication templates

Solutions like Runable's AI-powered automation platform could help contractors automate administrative work, allowing them to handle more projects and deliver better service. This increases the value Home Boost provides by making the entire ecosystem more efficient.

HomeBoost's innovative approach, including a thermal camera and user-friendly app, significantly increases adoption rates compared to traditional audits. (Estimated data)

Key Metrics and Performance Indicators

If you're evaluating Home Boost or considering similar services, these metrics matter:

Adoption rate: What percentage of a utility's customer base completes assessments? Target: 5-10% annually.

Follow-through rate: What percentage of homeowners who complete assessments actually implement recommended upgrades? Home Boost's early data suggests 40-50%, compared to 15-20% for traditional audits.

Average savings: How much do homeowners save annually after implementing recommended upgrades? Varies by home, but target is

Payback period: How long does it take for annual savings to offset the cost of upgrades? Most recommended upgrades have 5-15 year payback periods.

Contractor adoption: How many contractors integrate with Home Boost's platform? This determines whether homeowners can actually act on recommendations.

Retention and repeat customers: Do homeowners use Home Boost multiple times (e.g., after completing initial upgrades and tracking savings)? Recurring engagement increases lifetime value.

These metrics paint a picture of whether the system is actually working. A platform with high adoption but low follow-through is just generating data. A platform with high follow-through and strong savings validates the model.

Common Mistakes Homeowners Make When Evaluating Upgrades

Home Boost addresses several mistakes homeowners typically make:

Mistake 1: Prioritizing perceived problems over actual problems. Homeowners often think their HVAC is the biggest energy drain because it's the most visible system. Often, air leaks and poor insulation are actually bigger issues. Thermal imaging reveals the reality.

Mistake 2: Ignoring rebates and incentives. A homeowner sees a

Mistake 3: Oversizing or undersizing replacements. If you're replacing your HVAC, the system size should match your home's actual heating and cooling loads. An oversized system costs more, runs less efficiently, and cycles on and off frequently. An undersized system doesn't meet peak demands. The data from Home Boost assessments helps contractors right-size replacements.

Mistake 4: Ignoring interactions between upgrades. Improving insulation reduces the load on your HVAC. Adding heat pump heating (instead of gas) changes the economics of other upgrades. Homeowners tend to evaluate upgrades in isolation instead of as a system.

Mistake 5: Trusting vendor claims without verification. A contractor says new windows will save $2,000 annually. How do they know? What assumptions are they making about climate, usage, electricity rates, window quality? Home Boost's transparent calculations let homeowners verify claims.

The Insurance and Financing Angle

There's an opportunity Home Boost hasn't fully exploited yet: insurance and financing.

Home insurance companies care about energy efficiency. A well-maintained, efficiently heated home is less likely to have water damage from frozen pipes. A home with proper attic ventilation is less likely to have mold. Some insurers already offer discounts for energy-efficient homes, but they lack data to verify claims.

Home Boost assessments could provide that verification. If you complete a Home Boost assessment and your report shows proper insulation, moisture management, and HVAC maintenance, you could qualify for insurance discounts. The insurer gets better risk assessment. You get lower premiums.

Similarly, many homeowners want to upgrade but need financing. Lenders typically evaluate loans based on credit score and income. But energy savings are predictable income. If Home Boost says a heat pump installation will save you $250 monthly, a lender could use that as collateral for a loan.

Some utilities and state programs already offer energy efficiency financing. Home Boost could partner with these programs to make financing automatic and transparent. "Your assessment shows

Integration With Existing Home Technology

Most modern homes have some smart home technology: smart thermostats, smart lights, or smart meters. Home Boost could integrate with these systems to provide continuous monitoring.

Imaginatively: you complete a Home Boost assessment and get recommendations for improvements. You implement some of them. Over the next six months, you install smart thermostats, upgrade insulation, and replace windows. Home Boost can track your actual energy consumption via your smart meter and compare it against the pre-upgrade baseline.

This creates a feedback loop. Did the upgrade actually work as predicted? Better or worse? This data is valuable for future upgrade planning and helps validate the recommendation accuracy.

For contractors, integration with smart home systems enables remote project verification. After finishing a job, a contractor could use Home Boost data to demonstrate actual savings rather than relying on promises.

Regulatory and Policy Tailwinds

Home Boost benefits from favorable regulatory trends. Several factors are working in its favor:

Energy efficiency targets. Many states have set energy efficiency targets (e.g., "reduce residential energy consumption by 2% annually through 2030"). Utilities are under pressure to meet these targets, making assessment platforms valuable.

Building performance standards. Some cities and states are implementing building performance standards that require buildings to hit efficiency targets or face penalties. These create demand for assessment tools.

Heat pump promotion. Federal and state policies are pushing heat pump adoption (as alternatives to gas heating). Assessment tools that help homeowners understand whether heat pumps make sense for their specific situation are valuable in this context.

Decoupling and incentive programs. As mentioned earlier, regulatory structures that profit utilities from reduced consumption create structural demand for tools like Home Boost.

Inflation Reduction Act funding. The IRA allocated $369 billion toward climate and energy initiatives, including rebates for home efficiency upgrades and heat pumps. This increases the volume of available incentives that Home Boost can integrate and monetize.

Real-World Example: A Home Boost Assessment in Action

Let's walk through what a typical assessment looks like. (Note: This is a composite example based on typical homes and local incentives.)

Homeowner: Sarah, a homeowner in central New York served by Central Hudson utility. Her home was built in 1975, single-story, 2,000 square feet. She's been in the home for 8 years. Her winter heating bills average

Assessment: Sarah orders a Home Boost kit through Central Hudson's website (free because Central Hudson covers the cost). The kit arrives in five days. She spends a Saturday afternoon walking through her home with the thermal camera and blacklight.

Findings:

• Thermal camera reveals significant air leakage around basement rim joists and basement windows
• Thermal camera shows cold spots in the upstairs corner bedroom, suggesting low attic insulation above that area
• Multiple single-pane windows are visible in thermal imaging
• Blacklight shows about 30% of light fixtures are still incandescent

Report: Home Boost generates a report with ranked recommendations:

1. Seal basement air leaks (~

   $400 material and labor via contractor, DIY would be ~$
   100 materials)
   • Estimated annual heating savings: $140
   • Payback period: 2.8 years
   • Available rebates: None (but materials qualify for federal IRA weatherization tax credit, ~$80 value)
   • Rating: High priority, low cost

2. Add attic insulation (~$1,800 for 1,000 sq ft)

   • Estimated annual heating savings: $210
   • Payback period: 8.6 years
   • Available rebates: NY state rebate
     $300 + Central Hudson rebate$
     200 = $500 total
   • True cost after rebates: $1,300
   • Rating: Medium priority, good for comfort

3. Replace 6 single-pane windows (~

   $6,000 total, ~$
   1,000 per window)
   • Estimated annual heating savings: $180
   • Payback period: 33 years
   • Available rebates: Federal IRA tax credit ~$1,200 (15% of cost)
   • Rating: Lower priority, expensive, but quality of life improvement

4. Switch to LED lighting (~$200 for 20 fixtures)

   • Estimated annual savings: $60
   • Payback period: 3.3 years
   • Available rebates: None, but well worth it
   • Rating: Quick win

Sarah's decision: She finds a contractor through Home Boost's platform and gets quotes for sealing basement air leaks and adding attic insulation. The contractor quotes $2,000 total (labor plus materials), which is higher than Home Boost estimated. The contractor explains the rim joists need more work than Home Boost's scan detected.

Sarah negotiates, gets the price down to

Six months later: Winter heating bills average

Sarah is pleased. She's saved $450 this winter alone, putting her on track to break even in under three years. She's also planning to tackle the window replacement when she can save up.

This is the Home Boost story in action. Clear recommendations, transparent pricing including rebates, and measurable results.

Competitive Responses and Market Dynamics

Home Boost isn't in a vacuum. As it gains traction, incumbents and new competitors will respond.

Incumbent auditors might develop digital tools and partner with utilities. The advantage of incumbents is existing relationships and trust. The disadvantage is they're still operating under the old economics (labor-intensive, expensive).

Utilities might build internal platforms. This would cut out the middleman, but utilities aren't typically software companies. They'd either have to hire significant engineering talent or acquire/license technology from someone like Home Boost.

Purely digital competitors might emerge with AI-powered assessments that don't require physical hardware. This would be cheaper to scale but less accurate. Users would upload photos and video, and AI would analyze them. It's workable for rough assessments but probably not as good as thermal imaging.

Contractor aggregators (like Angi, Home Advisor) might add energy assessment functionality. They already have contractor networks, so the missing piece is assessment data. They could partner with Home Boost or acquire similar technology.

The most likely scenario is that Home Boost survives as either a standalone company (if they scale efficiently) or gets acquired by a larger player (utility, contractor aggregator, or home services platform) looking to add assessment capabilities.

Making the Economic Case for Energy Upgrades

Home Boost helps homeowners understand the financial case for upgrades, but let's look at the broader economics.

The total addressable market is enormous. US residential energy consumption costs about

Home Boost captures value by:

• Charging homeowners $99 per assessment (often subsidized)
• Taking a cut of contractor leads and transactions
• Selling anonymized data and insights to utilities and contractors
• Eventually offering financing or other ancillary services

The question is whether Home Boost can scale assessment volume while maintaining unit economics. At massive scale (millions of assessments annually), the per-assessment cost could drop below $30, making the economics even stronger.

Utilities' cost-benefit analysis is also favorable. If a utility spends

FAQ

What is Home Boost and how does it differ from traditional energy audits?

Home Boost is a home energy assessment platform that uses thermal imaging, blacklight technology, and AI-powered analysis to help homeowners identify cost-effective energy upgrades. Unlike traditional audits that require a licensed auditor to spend 8-10 hours in your home and cost

How does the Home Boost Boost Box actually work to assess my home?

The Boost Box contains a wireless infrared thermal camera and a blacklight. You walk through your home with the app open, scanning walls, windows, doors, and other areas with the thermal camera to identify where heat or cool air is escaping. The blacklight reveals which light fixtures could be upgraded to LEDs. As you scan, the app uses computer vision and machine learning to analyze the thermal data, calculate financial impacts, look up available rebates based on your location, and automatically generate a report ranking recommendations by cost-effectiveness (payback period, annual savings, available rebates).

What are the main benefits of using Home Boost compared to other assessment methods?

Home Boost offers several advantages: it's significantly cheaper than traditional audits (

How does Home Boost help me understand available rebates and incentives?

Home Boost integrates data from federal tax credit programs, state energy efficiency rebate programs, and utility rebate offerings. When it generates recommendations, the app automatically calculates which rebates you qualify for based on your zip code, home type, and the specific upgrade being considered. For example, a heat pump installation might show total cost of

Which utilities currently offer Home Boost assessments?

Home Boost has partnered with several major utilities including Central Hudson (New York), Omaha Public Power District (Nebraska), and Avista (covering portions of Washington, Idaho, and Montana). These utilities either cover the full

What happens after I complete a Home Boost assessment?

Home Boost generates a report with prioritized upgrade recommendations ranked by cost-effectiveness. If you're interested in moving forward, you can browse contractor recommendations through Home Boost's platform. Selected contractors have access to your assessment data, allowing them to provide more accurate quotes without re-doing the assessment work. Home Boost is also developing features to help facilitate contractor selection, project financing, and tracking actual energy savings after upgrades are completed.

How accurate are Home Boost's savings estimates?

Home Boost's estimates are based on thermal imaging data, your home's characteristics, local climate data, and your utility rates. Accuracy is generally high for physical issues that thermal imaging can detect (air leaks, insulation deficiencies) but may vary based on factors like household occupancy patterns and actual usage behavior. Home Boost's reports include assumptions and confidence intervals so you understand which estimates are based on direct measurements versus local averages. Real-world results typically fall within 20-30% of estimates, with variation depending on specific conditions.

Is Home Boost suitable for renters or only homeowners?

Home Boost is currently designed for homeowners who have the authority to decide on and invest in home upgrades. Renters typically cannot make permanent modifications or efficiency improvements without landlord permission. Some utilities and programs are exploring renter-friendly models, but Home Boost's current offering is optimized for owner-occupied homes where the person completing the assessment can also decide to invest in recommended upgrades.

How does Home Boost help contractors and why should I use the contractor platform?

Home Boost provides contractors with pre-qualified leads (homeowners who've completed assessments and expressed interest in upgrades) and detailed project information (thermal scans, specific problem areas, homeowner priorities) that would typically require a contractor site visit to gather. This reduces sales cycle time and improves project scoping accuracy. For homeowners, using contractors in Home Boost's network means they can provide quotes faster since they already have your assessment data, and their quotes are informed by actual thermal imaging rather than generic estimates.

Can I do a Home Boost assessment myself or does a professional need to do it?

Home Boost assessments are designed to be DIY-friendly. Homeowners can walk through their own homes with the thermal camera and blacklight, following the app's guidance. The app handles all the complex analysis, data interpretation, and recommendation generation. This contrasts with traditional audits where a licensed professional conducts the work. Home Boost is also developing a professional version for auditors and contractors who want to use the tool for their own customers, streamlining their assessment process.

Conclusion

Home Boost represents a meaningful shift in how homes get assessed for energy efficiency improvements. By removing friction, increasing transparency, and aligning incentives across utilities, homeowners, and contractors, the platform addresses real problems that traditional approaches haven't solved.

The founder's background in making surveys accessible through Survey Monkey carries into this venture: Home Boost takes a complex expert task (energy auditing) and enables non-experts to do meaningful work with good tools. That's a powerful formula.

We're at an inflection point where residential energy is becoming a policy priority, technology is enabling new solutions, and the economics are starting to work in favor of efficiency. Home Boost is well-positioned to capture value in this shift, but the broader opportunity is larger than any single company.

The real test is whether Home Boost can scale from pilot partnerships with a few utilities to operating across hundreds of utility territories while maintaining quality and user trust. If they pull that off, the company becomes a critical infrastructure for residential energy transitions in the US and eventually globally.

The climate impact potential is also significant. Residential energy efficiency improvements are one of the fastest, cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. Tools that make upgrades more accessible and economically attractive aren't just good business. They're infrastructure for necessary environmental progress.

For homeowners, the immediate value is clear: better information leading to smarter decisions about energy investments. That value is concrete and immediate. The broader systemic benefits are equally important, even if they're less obvious to individual users.

Key Takeaways

• HomeBoost reduces home energy assessment costs from
  $300-$
  600 to $99 (often free via utility subsidies) while cutting auditor time from 8-10 hours to 2-4 hours
• Homeowners who complete HomeBoost assessments are 2.5-3x more likely to implement recommended upgrades compared to traditional audits, indicating stronger engagement and trust
• The platform's integrated rebate database automatically calculates federal, state, and utility incentives, often reducing true upgrade costs by 30-50%
• HomeBoost aligns incentives across utilities (reduce consumption), homeowners (lower bills), and contractors (qualified leads), creating a sustainable three-sided marketplace
• Thermal imaging and computer vision technology enable digital assessment of home efficiency issues, removing auditor bias and enabling rapid, scalable deployment

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