Insulation Institute Blog

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently released its annual U.S. Energy & Employment Report, a comprehensive summary of national and state-level workforce, industry, and hiring information in the energy sector. The report shows that jobs in the energy sector increased by 300,000 (3.8 percent growth), increasing from 7.8 million to more than 8.1 million in 2022. And although the energy sector was significantly impacted by COVID-19 and its economic fallout last year, it recovered 71 percent of the jobs lost in 2020.

Heat pump technology is all the rage in the push for electrification and increased home energy efficiency, and with good reason: heat pumps are more efficient than electric resistance heating, reducing electricity needed for heating by up to 50 percent. However, there are several actions that homeowners should take before adding a heat pump so that the equipment operates optimally. These actions could help reduce the size of the equipment as well as the cost. NAIMA has produced a new guide, Getting Your Home Heat Pump Ready, that details the actions homeowners should undertake before adding a heat pump to improve their home’s overall energy efficiency.

On behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Building America Program, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) issued a request for proposal (RFP) for multi-disciplinary expert teams to address the technical challenges of decarbonizing the U.S. residential housing stock.