Idaho Power upgraded 40 homes for free, including 20 manufactured homes; each household then used an average of 6,477 fewer kWh of electricity every year

If you've ever lived in a mobile home, a rental where the furnace rattles like an angry chainsaw, or an older rental with a furnace that never quite keeps up, you've probably opened an electric bill that made you wince despite keeping the thermostat low. That experience lines up with the record: according to a 2010 Demand-Side Management report filed with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Idaho Power gave 40 low-income households free energy-efficiency upgrades, including 20 manufactured homes, and those households went on to use an average of 6,477 kilowatt-hours less electricity per year. That's roughly six to seven months of electricity for an average American household. Nothing fancy, just standard weatherization, done free of charge for some of the most overlooked housing in the state.

The housing type no one wants to discuss

More than 20 million Americans currently call manufactured homes their primary place of residence, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data from research firm Construction Coverage. This type of housing consists of some of the most affordability-oriented options available in the U.S., but they come with a caveat: they were generally built decades ago, with thin walls, a lack of insulation, and heating systems that seem to have been designed to lose energy as fast as possible.

The result is what researchers politely call an "energy burden.” A 2020 American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) overview found residents of manufactured homes faced energy costs 71 percent higher than the average American household would be charged for the same amount of power at the time, a gap that has likely persisted, though updated figures would be needed to confirm today's exact numbers.

What actually occurred in Idaho

The program itself was simple: Idaho Power notified qualifying households about the possibility of having their homes weatherized with free upgrades, including the sealing of air leaks and the addition of insulation, courtesy of the utility. The participating households were required to have their heating equipment inspected and upgraded, if necessary, also at the utility's expense.

The Idaho PUC filing reported that the homes reduced their electricity consumption by a measurable amount that remained consistent throughout the years following the upgrades. A separate national-level review of the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program conducted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, found comparable results in similar energy-saving home retrofits elsewhere.

So why aren't these types of programs being implemented on a larger scale?

Manufactured homes make up only about 5–6% of the total U.S. housing stock, roughly 7 to 8 million units nationally, with close to three-quarters of them owner-occupied, per Census-based estimates. Given how effective weatherization has proven to be, it's worth asking why programs like Idaho Power's remain the exception rather than the rule.

The honest answer is that scale runs into real structural obstacles, not just an awareness gap. Utility-run weatherization programs are typically funded through small ratepayer surcharges or limited federal Weatherization Assistance Program allocations, so budgets only stretch to a small number of homes each year. Manufactured homes add a further complication: many sit on rented lots, meaning the resident who'd benefit from insulation upgrades often doesn't own the structure outright, while the landlord who could authorize permanent changes has no direct financial incentive to pay for them: a classic split-incentive problem. On top of that, ACEEE's research has noted that many eligible households simply don't know these programs exist, even where funding is available.

The takeaway

You might not live in a mobile home, but chances are, if you're a millennial, you're living in a pre-2000 apartment complex that doesn't have particularly tight seals on its windows. If you're a homeowner, you might have inherited a house with a heating system that hasn't been upgraded since the Clinton administration. Either way, you might want to contact your local utility and ask them whether they have a low-income or general weatherization program that you might be eligible for. They just might have an existing channel through which they can help you reduce your electricity bills.