Financial incentives are available to owners when the efficiency of the new building exceeds the minimum Savings By Design thresholds, generally 10% better than Title 24 standards. These incentives encourage owners to make energy efficiency a major goal in their new buildings, and help to defray some of the costs of energy efficient building components. Owner incentives are determined in different ways, depending on whether the Whole Building or the Systems Approach is used.

Under the Whole Building Approach, the overall efficiency of the building is evaluated using a computer simulation analysis. If the building is at least 10% better than the baseline, then incentives are available.