As homeowners, few things get us lathered up quite like comparing our homes to the homes of our friends, family, and neighbors.
Whether it’s a point of pride or frustration, we have a hard-wired need to share and overshare our home-related wins and losses.
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There are certain areas of the home, however, that have elevated potential to bring value to our lives beyond bragging rights or short-term fixes. Home energy tech, in particular — while much of it is still nascent and yet to achieve widespread adoption — is quickly becoming fertile ground for home-to-home comparison.
Here’s the challenge: From the power-starved house to the energy-optimized smart home, there’s a wide disparity of power needs and technology that characterize each situation, making it harder to draw comparisons or gain any actionable insights.
A variety of motivations underlie a homeowner’s thought process, adding another layer of complexity. Recent research from Habitelligence shows that homeowners are considering upgrades to their energy systems, primarily to reduce monthly costs; however, there is also a growing desire for greater control and efficiency in their power infrastructure.
Top drivers of home energy tech investment
A new framework from Habitelligence takes aim at home energy maturity and provides a four-level scale for homeowners to self-assess where they stand and provide a goal post for future upgrades. Using the acronym CORE, the four levels are described as follows:
Level 1: Constrained – Homes at the constrained level face fundamental infrastructure limitations — undersized electrical panels (often 100 amps or less), aging or inadequate wiring, and minimal service capacity. These issues block the path to modern energy upgrades like solar, battery storage, EV chargers, or smart home panels. Homeowners often experience frequent breaker trips, restricted appliance choices, and mounting frustration as new technologies remain out of reach.
Although upgrading service can feel daunting or expensive, it’s a crucial first move that improves everyday safety and unlocks eligibility for future system installations and available incentives.
Level 2: Operational – At the operational level, a home’s wiring and service are structurally ready for energy upgrades, but the systems themselves haven’t yet been added. The groundwork is there — panel space, service capacity, and often even pre-wiring for solar or EV charging — but the home remains fully dependent on the traditional grid.
Many homeowners at this stage aren’t aware of the options available to them, missing out on meaningful savings, backup capabilities, or energy independence. Operational homes are ideally positioned to take the next step, with the flexibility to align upgrades with their personal goals and lifestyle.
Level 3: Resilient – Resilient homes have crossed a major threshold: They’ve invested in solar panels, battery storage, backup generators, or a combination of technologies. However, these systems often operate in isolation, without coordinated control or optimization. Manual switches, separate apps, and siloed operations can limit the true potential of the investments.
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With better integration — through smart inverters, energy management platforms, or dynamic load controls — these homes can significantly boost efficiency, resilience during outages, and overall return on investment. The core infrastructure is strong; it simply needs smarter orchestration to thrive.
Level 4: Empowered – Empowered homes represent the leading edge of residential energy management. At this level, solar generation, battery storage, EV charging, hybrid inverters, and smart panels are interconnected and actively optimized by intelligent software. The result is real-time adaptability: Load shifting, peak shaving, self-consumption maximization, and backup capabilities all happen seamlessly, often without manual intervention.
While occasional monitoring or fine-tuning may be required to maximize benefits, households at the empowered stage enjoy the highest levels of control, resilience, cost savings, and long-term energy flexibility, and are well-positioned to participate in emerging opportunities like grid services or vehicle-to-home energy transfer.
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No matter where a home falls on the CORE scale, there is potential to create real value for the household. All home tech constitutes an investment of money, time, and brain space.
While the return on that investment might start out primarily non-monetary (e.g., peace of mind, comfort, and convenience), as we rise on the maturity curve, we have the opportunity to reap meaningful financial benefits that can impact near-term cash flow and long-term home value.
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