What Makes a Home Energy Efficient Overall
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Overall home energy efficiency comes from several factors working together rather than any single upgrade acting alone: good insulation and sealing, efficient appliances, well designed heating and cooling, and, increasingly, on site renewable generation such as rooftop solar contributing toward a noticeably lower total energy demand across the year, measured on an ongoing bill.
Building orientation and design also play a significant role, since a home positioned and shaded to work with the local climate needs considerably less mechanical heating and cooling in the first place than one that fights against its surroundings through poor design or orientation choices made early on.
Because these factors interact, the most cost effective improvements usually address the biggest sources of loss first, typically insulation and sealing, before moving on to appliance upgrades or renewable generation, rather than pursuing any single fix in isolation without considering how the whole system actually behaves together as one unit.