Demand for upgraded energy efficiency at home is weak

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that this could be because people do not have enough jobs or money. Once you move past basics like caulk and weather stripping, even energy efficiency rapidly starts to cost significant amounts of money. Measures like blown insulation and water heaters are into the hundreds of dollars. Upgrading our windows and AC last year cost $18K.

Plus, if you owe more on your house than it is worth, why put even more money into it?

as it's a win/win situation with people being put to work and the nation becoming a little less dependent on foreign oil.

Without significant tax incentives this is going nowhere. Green energy was supposed to be the jobs generator but it didn't get good follow through from Obama.

We replaced our own windows, installed our own insulation. Replaced our old exterior wood doors with insulated steel doors. Ran around with cans of Great Stuff sealing the cracks and gaps in our old stone foundation. I guess there'd be a market for little old ladies and the upper middle class who don't want to do this stuff, but I can't see lots of people actually hiring a company to come out and caulk and unroll pink batts for you.

It is funded through utility billing. 3% of the billions of dollars Ohioans spend on electricity is a huge budget. Other states have electricity and natural gas funded efficiency programs, too.

We can achieve upgrades to 100 million homes.

But I won't see that money until tax time rolls around, which sucks because I just got a heating bill for $500 worth of propane delivered. I'm spending over $175/month heating a 1900 sq. ft. house, and that is with the thermostat set to 63F, the upstairs closed off and set to 50F, and using a cast-iron woodburning stove every other night in the living room. Everything is caulked and weathersealed over but the windows are the originals, the attic has about 3" of insulation where it should have 12"+ (this is Minnesota), and there are cold spots on the walls where I'm guessing the insulation has settled over time (the house was built in 1967). The furnace spends more time running than turned off.

The good thing is that my brother and mother-in-law both do home repair professionally and have access to left-over materials at build and remodel sites so I should be able to save a bundle on labor and material. Without their help, I'd be screwed.