Energy Costs Are Up 40% Since 2021. That's Making Energy Efficiency the Easiest Upsell in Remodeling
Your customers’ energy bills are climbing, and most of them don’t know there’s anything they can do about it. They assume rising costs are just the price of keeping the lights on. What they don’t know is that the contractor already inside their home scoping a kitchen remodel is in the best position to change that.
Meanwhile, their electric bill went up again last month. Residential electricity prices have climbed roughly 40% since 2021. Utilities requested $31 billion in rate increases in 2025, more than double the year before, and the national average residential rate hit 18.83 cents per kilowatt-hour as of April 2026, with no sign of leveling off. Your customer is already motivated to spend less on energy. They just don’t know you’re the one who can make that happen.
Rising energy costs make the leads you already have worth more, because every remodel walkthrough is now a chance to add scope the homeowner is ready to say yes to.
Two contractors working different ends of the efficiency market shared how they’re adding that scope. Andrea Sutton, who runs Sutton Place Design, a second-generation design-build firm in North Carolina’s Lake Norman region, is fielding growing client demand for EV readiness, battery backups, and whole-home technology. Rick Bedard, owner of Houston Gulf Electric, has turned LED retrofits and occupancy sensors into reliable add-on revenue on nearly every service call.
Your customers are already thinking about their bills
Average U.S. electricity prices rose 9% year-over-year in early 2026, according to EIA data, with the residential sector up 7.4% on its own. In some states, the increases are far steeper. Ohio jumped 19.4%, D.C. 19.2%, and New Jersey 16.8% over the same period. Electricity now outpaces overall inflation as a driver of household cost increases.
Bedard sees it on service calls. “We’re getting way more customers asking us about their energy costs than we did even a couple years ago,” he says. “A homeowner just called because they got a $400 monthly electric bill and wanted us to check if something was wrong with their wiring. Nothing was broken. Their systems were just old and inefficient.”
Sutton is seeing it from the remodel side. “We’re seeing more people move to our area from places like California and Boston, and they’re used to having this technology,” she says. “They’re asking about EV chargers, battery backups, whole-home connectivity. Five years ago, those conversations almost never happened here.”
The demand is measurable. Home battery capacity grew more than 50% in 2025 as homeowners prioritized backup power and bill management, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The residential EV charger market is projected to grow from $9.7 billion in 2025 to $39.4 billion by 2031. These aren’t niche requests anymore.
Your move: Add one question to your initial walkthrough: “Have your utility bills gone up in the last year or two?” If the answer is yes, you’ve opened the door to scope that wasn’t in the original ask.
LED retrofits are the lowest-friction starting point
If you want to add efficiency work to your scope without a steep learning curve, start with lighting. LEDs use up to 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs and last up to 25 times longer, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The average household saves about $225 a year by switching. In commercial settings, LED conversion typically saves 50% of electricity over a fluorescent baseline, according to GSA, and adding lighting controls can cut an additional 80% of what’s left.
Bedard’s team has built LED retrofits into their standard workflow. “LEDs are actually cheaper upfront than the old fixtures, they cut the customer’s overhead, and they last years longer,” he says. “When you explain that, people don’t need convincing.”
The on-site opportunity is where the real margin lives. Bedard describes a typical scenario: his team arrives for a standard service call, spots a flickering fluorescent, and offers to retrofit it right there. “We tell the homeowner we can swap the whole thing to LED for about $40. It’s a quick add-on for us, and the customer feels like they got a deal.”
There’s also a supply-side pressure pushing contractors toward LEDs whether they plan to or not. “Try finding bulk pricing on old fluorescent fixtures right now,” Bedard says. “It doesn’t exist. If you’re still stocking those, you’re paying more for a product your customer is going to like less.”
Commercial retrofits scale the same approach
The same logic applies at larger scale. Office buildings, warehouses, and retail spaces typically see a 40–60% reduction in lighting-related energy costs after a full LED conversion, and building codes are reinforcing the shift. The 2024 IECC requires occupancy sensors in offices, classrooms, conference rooms, restrooms, and storage areas. If you do commercial remodel work in a jurisdiction that’s adopted the 2024 IECC, these controls are code-required.
Bedard’s team recently bundled occupancy sensors with integrated dimmers into a lawyer’s office remodel. “We explained that an occupancy sensor means the lights draw zero power when nobody’s in the room,” he says. “It just made sense.” On a separate warehouse project, his team installed LED high-bay fixtures to replace older HID and halogen ballast systems, units projected to last 20 years, eliminating recurring costs for lift rentals and crew time to change out bulbs at ceiling height.
Your move: On your next five jobs, look at the lighting. If the client has fluorescent fixtures, incandescent bulbs, or anything without dimmer capability, mention the LED option. Track your close rate. You’ll likely find it’s higher than almost any other add-on you offer.
Frame the ROI conversation around what the client actually cares about
Contractors hesitate to pitch efficiency upgrades because they think they need detailed savings projections. Both Bedard and Sutton have found that a common-sense explanation closes more deals than a spreadsheet.
For cost-driven clients, keep it intuitive. Bedard doesn’t bring a calculator. “We just explain it in a way that makes sense: a dimmed light draws less power, and a light on an occupancy sensor draws zero power when a room is empty. People are smart enough to get that without a chart.”
For comfort-driven clients, lead with quality of life. Sutton’s clients are often investing in systems where the payback timeline is 20 to 25 years, but the purchase decision has nothing to do with payback. “I have a homeowner right now who works remotely on high-level projects, and his priority is that everything switches to battery backup during an outage and he doesn’t miss a beat,” she says. “Other clients want to know they’re doing something good for the environment. It’s a trifold reasoning: value, quality of life, and environmental impact.”
When the scope gets bigger, financing keeps it intact. An EV charging setup, panel upgrade, and battery backup can run into five figures. Acorn Finance lets you show homeowners real monthly payment options, turning a $15,000 electrical upgrade into a manageable number instead of a reason to cut scope.
Your move: Match the pitch to the client. Commercial clients want payback period and reduced operating costs. Residential clients want comfort, reliability, and peace of mind. Lead with the benefit they care about, not the math.
You don’t need to be the expert to capture this work
The barrier to adding efficiency work depends on your trade. If you’re an electrician, LED retrofits and sensor installs are straightforward extensions of what you already do. “The wiring is identical,” Bedard says. “The only real learning curve is programming the occupancy sensor, and that’s mostly common sense.”
If you’re a GC or remodeler, the opportunity looks different. You don’t need to wire the sensor yourself, but you do need to know enough to recommend the right upgrades and keep the work in your scope. Sutton is investing in that knowledge deliberately, enrolling in continuing education courses on energy systems and pursuing additional licenses. “Somebody needs to be well-versed in this as more people move here wanting these options,” she says. “I would like to at least be able to answer their questions better than I can now.”
Where her knowledge has gaps, she fills them with partnerships rather than guesswork. “Find a company with a solid reputation and let them be the smartest one in the room,” she says. “Don’t pretend you know everything about solar panels or battery systems if you don’t. Partner with someone who does, and focus on being a reliable resource to your clients.”
The partnership model also drives referrals in both directions. The solar installer sends remodel clients your way; you send energy-curious homeowners theirs. But the long game is building enough expertise to keep more of that scope under your own roof.
Your move: Research which energy efficiency upgrades are in demand in your market. Check your state’s average electricity rate and how fast it’s rising, look at what local utilities offer in rebate programs, and start asking in your next few consultations whether homeowners have thought about EV charging, battery backup, or lighting upgrades. That homework tells you where the opportunity is before you invest in training or partnerships.
The bottom line
Energy costs aren’t coming back down. Residential electricity prices have outpaced inflation every year since 2022, and the structural forces behind the increases, from grid infrastructure spending to data center demand to extreme weather, aren’t temporary. Every month that bills climb, homeowners get a little more receptive to the contractor who can show them how to spend less.
You don’t need to become a solar installer or a battery engineer. LED retrofits, dimmer switches, occupancy sensors, EV-ready wiring are all add-ons that sell themselves once you open the conversation. The contractors adding efficiency to their scope are doing one thing well: paying attention.
Ready to keep energy efficiency projects at full scope instead of watching clients cut back? Acorn Finance lets your customers compare multiple loan offers in minutes, so the efficiency upgrade stays in scope instead of getting cut from the proposal. Learn how contractor financing works.
