Clean Energy EXPO 2025: Smart Home, Green Home

The 28th Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO and Policy Forum was held on Thursday, July 24, 2025. The event was hosted by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), with the House and Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (REEE) Caucuses serving as honorary co-hosts. It featured eight panels, including Rural and Tribal Communities.

Highlights

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Smart and green homes—characterized by automation, resource efficiency, and sustainability—are crucial to reducing energy loads and promoting sustainable energy consumption in U.S. households.
Energy efficiency and electrification are the foundation of resilient and sustainable homes, offering wide-ranging benefits beyond reducing energy consumption.
Proven energy-efficient technologies are gaining consumer interest as they deliver significant, quantifiable energy and financial savings across diverse settings.

Katrin Klingenberg, Founder and Co-Executive Director, Phius

Using airtight construction to reduce energy demand at the source is the foundation of energy-efficient and resilient home designs.
Load reduction and efficient all-electric systems offer a complete solution that saves money and eases the burden on the U.S. electric grid, which is under pressure from data centers, population growth, and an increasingly electrified world.
Energy efficiency is not just about saving energy. It also boosts American energy independence, protects households from price shocks, makes every energy dollar go further, and creates a more reliable energy future.
Efficient electrification has been tested and proven effective at multiple scales, from single-family suburban homes to high-rise, multi-family urban apartment buildings.

Prerna Tomar, Director, Public Policy, Samsung

Energy-efficient appliances help address rising energy costs. For example, ENERGY STAR-certified appliances can reduce a typical U.S. household’s monthly energy bill by $450, saving Americans a total of $40 billion per year.
In 2022, ENERGY STAR-certified appliances saved the equivalent of 47 million homes’ energy use for one year.
Consumer interest in energy-efficient appliances is increasing as they become financially compelling.
ENERGY STAR has a significant return on taxpayer investment, costing $32 million to operate and saving $40 billion annually.

Anuj Mistry, Manager of Technical Services, Daikin

A “smart home” is automated, while a “green home” is resource- and energy-efficient, sustainable, and healthy. Both smart and green homes are important for reducing energy loads and promoting sustainable consumption by Americans.
Technologies like heat pumps and inverter compressors are examples of both smart and green home appliances. Heat pumps are electric systems that can act as either an air conditioner or heater for homes. Inverter compressors can modulate between 0 and 100% power (compared to a traditional compressor that is either at 0% or 100%), allowing homes to operate systems at more specific cooling levels and save energy.
Energy-efficient products have a guaranteed return on investment. However, at the front-end, they are still slightly more expensive for consumers. This barrier can be addressed with incentives from multiple angles, especially for installation fees, as the contractors need to be re-skilled.

Compiled by Jasmine Wynn and edited for clarity and length. This is not a transcript.