The Hood River Conservation Project

Abstract

The Hood River Conservation Project (HRCP) was a major residential conservation project, intended to test the upper limits of a utility retrofit program. It was proposed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, funded by the Bonneville Power Administration (Bonneville) and operated by Pacific Power & Light Company (Pacific) in Hood River, Oregon. Thisfive-year, $20 million research and demonstration project installed as many cost-effective conservation measures in as many electrically heated homes in Hood River as possible. The measures were aimed at the building shell to reduce electricity use for space heating and at water-heating retrofits. This article summarizes the remarkable (and largely successful) efforts to design a comprehensive evaluation to address energy-policy issues important to the Pacific Northwest. Evaluation results are presented concerning project performance in three critical areas: the number of eligible households that participated, the number of recommended conservation actions adopted by participants and financed by HRCP, and the actual electricity use and savings achieved by HRCP.