Data Reshapes Home Control And Drives New Investment Frontiers

Driving Home Energy Efficiency Solutions

One thing homeowners have learned is that data allows them to look intelligently at their homes to choose projects that make their homes more efficient, which also is putting money back in their pockets.

GoodLeap, a financial technology company that provides point-of-sale financing for sustainable home improvements, reports that about 21,000 homeowners took on a second home improvement project within a 12-month period.

Since it started, GoodLeap has recorded two or more funded projects from 156,633 homeowners, and between 60% and 71% of them start a different project category the second time, suggesting that they are improving different aspects of their homes over time instead of all at once.

The GoodLeap data shows building envelope projects experienced the fastest growth. For example, homes adding energy-efficient windows and doors had a nine times growth, along with a six times increase in insulation and weatherization since 2022. Efficient water heating (including heat-pump water heaters) increased more than six times during the same period, and HVAC and heat pump projects, which are the biggest driver of a home’s energy use, nearly tripled in 2025 alone.

Green Builder Media’s COGNITION Smart Data reports that 73.4% of consumers would purchase an all-electric home in 2026, up from 36.7% in 2025—a 100% increase in demand. This increase underscores how the data is making homeowners smarter.

Another product homeowners are investing in to electrify their homes is induction stoves.

“There is a big latent demand for people investing in electrifying their homes,” Sam Calisch, co-founder and CEO of Copper. “We started the company to make it easier for people to get access to the technologies. We took an electric appliance and put a battery in it that just needs to be plugged in and designed to leverage the existing infrastructure for a gas stove.”

While there is a premium for the stove, installation costs are reduced because it doesn’t require the kitchen to be rewired. For example, where Copper is selling in volume to apartments, it is saving money by decarbonizing the building along with cutting out the maintenance of old leaking gas pipes. Plus, the new stoves helps avoid health dangers and the potential litigation that would come with those issues.

“We supplied a building in Los Angeles with Copper stoves that saved $800,000 by avoiding electrical upgrades,” Calisch said about the stoves that can save installation labor and cost in the installation process. “You would have to install 240 watts for a conventional stove. With the kitchen and the plug, service upgrade, new utility panel, the costs go from $1,000 to up to $10,000 and all of it involves working with contractors, quotes, complexities, putting new wires in.”

Again, it gives the homeowner more control in several ways. A Copper induction stove also provides resilience to the home because it can use its battery to perform daily load shifting that supports the needs of the grid.

Homeowners Powered By Home Data

Not only are homeowners getting smarter about starting new projects, but they are also starting to document them so that they have control of the data and the information in the future.

Home management app, Oply, shows that nearly a third of the projects that homeowners have input in the app in the last 90 days are projects they had done previously.

“They’re going back and rebuilding a history of the house that never existed anywhere,” said Oply’s CEO, Lindsey Chrismon. “And a lot of the rest isn’t repairs at all; it’s people documenting where their water, gas, and electrical shutoffs are, before anything ever breaks. They’re writing the owner’s manual their house never came with.”

This technology is enabling homeowners to start to be proactive about managing their homes.

“The home is the only major asset that comes with no operating manual. Homeowners are done waiting. They’re building the record themselves, before anything breaks.” Chrismon said.

By reconstructing the home’s history, they are creating an asset for resale, warranties, insurance proof and peace of mind. Homeowners are able to document where the shutoffs and panels are before anything breaks.

Another benefit is that having this in hand empowers them like never before. Oply shows that when a homeowners is told exactly what to do and when, they follow through—recommended tasks from the app get completed at twice the rate of ones they set themselves.

Some of these apps and products come with a price tag that many homeowners in today’s market won’t want to take on, said Grant Farnsworth, president at home improvement research firm The Farnsworth Group.

“I think it’s important to understand the budget constraints many consumers have in this market and the impact those constraints may have on sacrificing tech with a cheaper product,” he said.

But homeowners aren’t the only ones that will benefit.

Gaining Control On Home

Utilities are increasingly turning to homeowners for help balancing the grid. Recent research from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative found that 66% of Americans are willing to participate in demand response programs where households can reduce or shift electricity use during periods of peak demand. But, the programs are new so right now only 7% of households actually participate.

“We are in the evolution of a new energy landscape,” said Preeti Bajaj, executive vice president of home solutions, Schneider Electric. “Consumers want to be able to decide when to cool the house and at what expense or to use solar or storage to do it. They can set up at the right time to be hotter in the home and to be rewarded from the utility. People are far more aware and more interested in demand response program.”

Research firm Parks Associates reports that 20% of smart thermostat households are enrolling in demand response program.

A big catalyst for these changes is the phenomenon of electric vehicles that can double the load of a home’s energy system. Bajaj said that existing homes that added EVs were hitting 80% energy capacity, driving the need for upgraded electrical boards.

Hitting the maximum rate of capacity put homeowners in a tight spot, worried about being able to charge cars, while at the same time utilities were worried because they need to send more power to homes.

Homeowners want to intelligently control these dynamics. For instance, when they choose to plug their car in, they want to see if the HVAC, pool pump, or the washer are on, putting them in the position to decide to turn it all off for three hours while the car is charging. Or, the homeowner can choose to use battery storage and avoid an excess of $10,000 of expense of just upgrading the board.

“Plus, the grid loves to offer stable power,” Bajaj said. “This is the biggest shift that is happening. It used to be only a linear equation. And now, homes can interact with the energy system. You can help it and decide how you participate in it. Live your life more comfortably.”

Bajaj advises designers to think of energy demand in the process of designing and building homes because it shouldn’t be an afterthought.

This also is validated by retail trends that show demands on electric appliances are strong and growing stronger.

Home improvement data analytics company, Datavations, looked at sales from big box retailers and saw that electric represents the majority of big box water heater unit sales at about 53% and hit a two year high in the first quarter of this year. Sales of both gas and electric water heaters grew about 11% in the same time period, showing that gas isn’t shrinking, but electric is edging ahead.

That current demand for electric water heaters is mostly dependent on geography. Datavations shows that demand for electric water heating is based primarily in the South and much of the Northeast with Florida at about 95% electric, with Maine, the Carolinas and Tennessee close behind. Gas still leads California, the Mountain West, and the industrial Midwest.

Homeowners are making those informed choices with information on websites that show and promote the benefits of lower energy use, just one small decision in the role of homeownership.

Power In Homeowner’s Hands Lowers Risk

A homeowner has responsibilities to maintain their biggest financial investment and to protect it. New home management apps, like Oply, provide that information in the homeowner’s hand. As a home’s digital catalog is created, homeowners can not only save money, but also protect themselves from risk.

“If there are two homes that are the same and one has everything documented, it reduces risk for a new homeowner,” said Wilhelm Lundborg, founder and CEO at home management platform Homer. “It lowers the risk stepping into a home with receipts, documentation, home improvements, timelines captured. That is added value.”

All the stored, digital information can be shared with other members of the family, and with contractors.

“It creates a case for digitization – the data can be sliced, diced, analyzed,” Lundborg added. “It unlocks the power of the data points and connects the dots.”

It’s a great way for new home builders to create a nice sleek new home handover with all specifications of the appliances, warranties, energy declarations, and manuals.

If homeownership stills seems risky, a new insurance offered by Home Value Lock gives homeowners more certainty by locking the market value of their home for the first three years after they purchase it.

“We protect a portion of their home’s value against market declines, providing a way to mitigate risk and preserve wealth in an increasingly uncertain housing market,” said Oliver Tickner, the company’s CEO.

The insurance policy puts the homeowner in control with data on market appreciation and the value of surrounding homes.

The Future of Home Data Ownership

The future of housing is interconnected with the rest of the landscape. Data centers are being built everywhere and demanding energy from the grid, changing the peak demand curve.

“If there is home intelligence in the homes around the data center, you can do peak shifting,” Schneider’s Banjaj said. “It will cause peak demand to go up, then all homeowners get a message that it is peak demand time, asking if they want to lower energy use, or lower HVAC for an incentive. If 50% of the community participates in that, it is able to efficiently use energy and make you feel like you are in control of those choices.”

As Farnsworth said and as was reported in a COGNITION Smart Data study, upfront cost is a universal challenge to this evolution, presenting an opportunity for building professionals to understand the right design approach, apply incentives, and work with manufacturers to create better product solutions that would mitigate upfront cost.

The future means better home design, with more intelligence and giving more control to homeowners through better integration, visibility and data.