As a grandparent wanting safe, livable futures for my great great grandchildren, I am heartened by Daily Journal letters and columns showing the benefits of electrification, demonstrating how doable and affordable building electrification has become.
As “early electrifiers,” my wife Teri and I have fully electrified our 1951, 2,200-square-foot San Mateo home. It is the winner of Peninsula Clean Energy’s award as the 2023 All-Electric Leader, Outstanding Residential Modernization.
There are many benefits to electrification — health, safety, comfort and resilience. We electrified because the need for swift climate action has never been greater. Since early 2021 when we installed our first electric appliance, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released sobering reports on the state of the climate. As UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres puts it, humanity is at Code Red.
The IPCC made this crystal clear. To solve the climate crisis requires individuals, governments, and businesses must make immediate, drastic shifts away from fossil fuels. We ignore this at our extreme peril.
Locally, buildings account for a large percentage — 38% — of greenhouse gas emissions. However, we are fortunate that Peninsula Clean Energy provides 100% clean electricity. We can electrify all buildings.
In our home, after taking advantage of then-available limited rebates, the net cost of replacing our obsolete gas-fired stove, water heater, dryer and furnace with electric was $24,000. By comparison, the contractor quotes to replace gas with gas totaled $16,000, an incremental increase of $8,000 to go from all gas appliances to all-electric appliances. But that was before recent increases in local rebates, and the game-changing Inflation Reduction Act.
For the typical homeowner in San Mateo, the 2023-2024 net electrification cost, including a water heater, furnace, stove, dryer and a new panel if needed (in so few cases) has dropped from $24,000, to $10,000 after rebates and tax credits. That is $6,000 less than what my family would have paid for gas replacements. In other words, electric replacements costs are now less than gas replacements.
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The specifics: Peninsula Clean Energy and the Bay Area Regional Energy Network offer rebates of $4,000 for installation of an electric heat pump water heater, and $4,500 for installation of an electric heat pump water space heater/air conditioner. The IRA provides up to $2,000 each year, as well as rebates (available in 2024) up to: $1,750 for heat pump water heaters, $8,000 for heat pump space heating and cooling, $4,000 for electric panel replacements (needed in very few cases, just use the “Watt Diet”). This is a total of more than $25,000 in rebates and tax credits for the typical San Mateo family with even more rebates and tax credits available for low and fixed income families. Check the incentives available to you here: incentives.switchison.org.
Regarding grid capacity, Jan Pepper, CEO of Peninsula Clean Energy, said last December: “We do have enough clean and affordable power to make building electrification work.” Peninsula Clean Energy has committed to providing 24/7/365 clean power by the year 2025. Chris Benjamin, Corporate Sustainability director at PG&E stated last August that “PG&E regularly forecasts electrical load in our service area, so that we can implement upgrades to the distribution grid to meet areas of growing demand and plan for the needs that all-electric buildings will require.”
The benefits of natural gas in a power outage are highly exaggerated by the fossil fuel industry. Gas central furnaces, and newer stoves, dryers and gas water heaters will not operate during power outages.
History has shown the dangers of gas in our homes. After an earthquake, it takes much longer for gas service to be restored. Poorly maintained gas appliances produce carbon monoxide and benzene, and leak methane, even when turned off. The burning of natural gas creates NOx, which can cause asthma and other respiratory problems.
All gas fired equipment will eventually fail. As one example, about half of all water heaters in San Mateo County will need replacement in the next seven years. That is 100,000 gas water heaters. Why would one think of replacing gas equipment with gas, when so many clean electricity options are available at competitive costs?
We can each do our part to ensure a fantastic future for our great great grandchildren.
Robert Whitehair and his wife Teri live in San Mateo and are active members of the San Mateo Climate Action Team, named a 2023 Champion of Promise by Acterra. Robert was the winner of the 2022 Sustainable San Mateo County Ruth Petersen Award for Volunteer Service. He has more than 50 years experience in buildings and infrastructure.
(10) comments
Mr. Whitehair - thanks for your letter, but you still don’t address the fact that at least half our electricity comes from fossil-fuel burning power plants. Now you may be happy there are fewer emissions in your backyard but that doesn’t make a whit of difference to the Earth. As for rebates, this is just another case of the poor subsidizing the rich, because not everyone has the up-front money to convert. Renters will likely need to “donate” to the rich at least twice: first via rebates to the rich, and second via higher rental costs due to the landlord upgrading.
Ultimately, your electrification efforts amount to little and effectively do nothing to save the planet, especially since China, India, developing nations, and even developed nations are increasing their use of fossil fuels because their “green” electricity capacity isn't enough. The UK fired up coal generators because their “green” energy couldn’t keep up. Germany, last year, purchased over 44 million tonnes of coal, mostly from Russia. China purchased $114 billion worth of oil from Russia (while increasing coal mining operations in China) and is planning to build almost 200 coal power plants this year. India is planning on importing 33 times more oil from Russia than last year and their current energy usage is provided mostly by coal (75% or so). Overall global use of coal has climbed to a record high of over 8 billion tonnes. Japan is now buying Russian oil at prices higher than the Russian oil “cap.”
Dear Mr. Whitehair, aside from all of the rosy projections, please be so kind and let us know what your electricity bills from PG&E and PCE amount to. If you have already installed solar, please include the monthly either lease or interest cost on the loan. We never seem to get a clear answer as to what the ensuing costs are when a home is fully electrified.
Also, I would not accept the statement by a Sustainability Director at PG&E that the system will be able to handle the increased electrical load. That assurance should come from their operations departments, not from a person who is responsible for recycling paper cups and wire remnants. The Chronicle reported on Sunday that PG&E is already incapable of even accommodating new electric panel installations, leaving residents with a questionable energy supply future. Imagine when tens of thousands of PG&E customers apply for their new electric panel connections. Let's be honest here; it is a nightmare.
Installing a new electrical service to accommodate “electrification” would be a lot more costly and take weeks or months to get a contractor to show up. How long would a family have to wait in a freezing home for “electrification” in the middle of winter if their gas water heater, furnace or stove broke down? My cost comparison show that it would take far more than estimated to bring in a new electrical service and re-wire their home to carry higher electrical loads. Retrograding makes no sense - the focus should be on new construction. Why would anyone rely on California's grid for their needs? There is no rush since elecctrifying everything won't lower world temperatures a 1/1000 of a degree.
Great op-ed Robert. I’ll be looking to install a heat pump HVAC this year. Will report back with results.
Robert Whitehair and his wife Teri live in San Mateo and are active members of the San Mateo Climate Action Team, named a 2023 Champion of Promise by Acterra. .....tantamount to "Brought to You by Pfizer".
Thanks, I hadn't heard of Acterra. It looks like a wonderful organization. I love to find these kind of organizations that are working to make the world better and the planet liveable for future generations. Each one of us who cares can find organizations like this an plug in with whatever small amount of time or money we can contribute!
How many vaccines and boosters do you have to date?
Thanks Bob for a excellent explanations of all the aspects around electrification. Especially glad to hear that we do have enough clean and affordable power to make building electrification work!
Dear Westy - I never thought of you as gullible. There is no way that PCE will be able to supply all of the projected new load with carbon free energy. If it can, it would skim it off other regions in California, that is called provincialism. Even the CEC is stating that carbon free energy to meet electricity demand is not very realistic and all supplies will need to be supplemented with fossil-based energy in the foreseeable future. My hair is not as white as his but I have a lot more practical experience in this field than he does. Facts were valued where I have worked; unsubstantiated claims would lead to dismissal.
We are well on our way to big electrical shortages in summer and it will take billions of dollars to expand our grid. Rate payers are on the hook to pay for it.
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