The federal government and quasi-governmental organizations have already undertaken considerable investments in residential energy efficiency in the United States. Recently, Fannie Mae has moved beyond mortgages to offer affordable residential energy efficiency loans for all homes. All providers of efficiency services and equipment share the desire for market growth. Until about 1980, a new U.S. car usually had defects, and the owner had to make several inconvenient trips to take it in for repairs. By the mid-1990s, partially thanks to electronics in the factory and onboard, new cars are delivered with a far lower defect rate.
Buildings are complicated systems.
Like cars, buildings are complicated systems. Another major contributor to quality control is the arrival of reliable electronics for control, data logging, and communication with a real-time measurement and diagnostic center. The level of energy efficiency investments is stagnant. Utility financing for efficiency is in decline. The predicted decline in utility financing is not a result of a decline in potential projects but rather to the impending deregulation and restructuring of the utility industry in the United States.