Press release

Rush Hour Rewards Participants Received More Than $40 Million in Rewards Last Year

August 14, 2025

Rush Hour Rewards

Renew Home and its partners currently manage more than 100 Rush Hour Rewards programs with over 1.3 million participating households

SAN FRANCISCO, CA –  August 14, 2025 – Today, Renew Home announced that in 2024, customers participating in Rush Hour Rewards1—a leading demand response program it operates for Google Nest users—received over $40 million in rewards and incentives through over 100 energy provider programs.2

This substantial impact comes from a combination of enrollment bonuses and incentives for participating in demand response events; eligible customers can also receive rebates for their thermostats at point of sale. 

Demand response reduces or shifts usage during periods of high electricity demand to help customers save and earn rewards while creating a more stable grid. When it launched in 2013, Rush Hour Rewards revolutionized the category by providing participants with a new level of "set it and forget it" automation, ensuring households are always in control of event participation, and rewarding households for enrollment and participation. In addition to valuable customer rewards, the program creates a virtual power plant (VPP) that enables greater grid resiliency, helping stave off rolling blackouts during extreme weather events.

"The benefits seen from Rush Hour Rewards demonstrate the immense potential for households to manage their energy use and benefit financially while contributing to grid stability," said Ben Brown, CEO of Renew Home. “As electricity needs and prices rise, it's essential we continue to help households find ways to gain more control over their home energy and find easy opportunities to save.”

In addition to direct rewards from utility and energy provider programs, households installing smart thermostats like Nest benefit financially by making their home energy consumption more efficient. According to a 2024 report, Nest thermostats can help save an average of 12% on heating bills and 15% on cooling bills.3,4 In 2024 alone, it is estimated that Nest thermostats helped users save more than $2 billion in energy costs.5

"At Renew Home, we’re building on this legacy by making it even easier to integrate energy savings and rewards into everyday life,” said Brown. “Big change shouldn't always require big effort. We’re proving that small, subtle actions—enabled by millions—can reshape the future of energy."

Today, Renew Home and its partners manage 100+ Rush Hour Rewards programs with over 1.3 million households. For more on how Renew Home is expanding access to energy savings for more households by reimagining the future of residential virtual power plants, read our latest insight article, A more rewarding future. Renew Home VPP is building the country’s largest residential virtual power plant, with more than 5 million connected households.

About Renew Home 

Renew Home brings households and energy providers together to help households save energy and earn rewards while offering energy providers cost-effective, reliable grid capacity at scale. With its home energy management platform, Renew Home empowers millions of households to save and shift their energy use to times when it's cleaner, less expensive or better for the grid. Renew Home VPP is building the country’s largest virtual power plant solution for energy providers, with more than 5 million connected households. Renew Home is a Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) company. Learn more at www.renewhome.com.

Contact: Renew Home, press@renewhome.com

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  1. Google, Google Home, Nest, Nest Renew, Nest Thermostat, Nest Learning Thermostat, Rush Hour Rewards, and the Google and Nest logos are trademarks of Google LLC.
  2. Estimated customer rewards value includes Rush Hour Rewards program enrollment bonuses and participation incentives provided to customers by energy providers with at least one customer enrolled during 2024. The total value of enrollment incentives is the sum of estimated incentives from each program month during 2024 (calculated by applying the current enrollment incentive value to the net increase in customers each month). The total value of the participation incentives is the sum of estimated 2024 incentives for each program (calculated by applying the current participation incentive to the customer count during the program’s corresponding months, seasons, or annual participation requirements; for programs with event participation requirements, a 60% participation rate—based on highest average event opt-out rates—was applied to the customer count for the given program participation period)..
  3. Google Nest whitepaper titled, Energy Savings from Google Nest Thermostats, Aug 2024, savings are based on multiple independent research studies in the US that compared utility bills before and after installation plus the average savings per thermostat from Seasonal Savings (adjusted for enrollment rate).
  4. Estimated energy savings are based on real-world studies and national performance data involving replacement of conventional thermostats with Nest thermostats in the U.S. Individual savings depend upon many factors, including climate and seasonal changes, home size, occupancy and appliances, as well usage of energy-savings features such as Auto-Away and Seasonal Savings. Actual savings may vary. Learn more at g.co/nest/realsavings.
  5. Estimated energy savings are calculated based on the average percentages for heating and cooling savings found in real-world studies of the Nest Learning Thermostat in the U.S., and generalized for Nest thermostat usage in North America. To calculate the total Nest dollar savings, savings percentages were applied to the actual heating and cooling hours of all Nest thermostats in use, and prices by fuel type based on US EIA and multiple sources for Canadian energy prices during 2024.