B6.1 Natural gas to electric conversions *
Educate business owners and residents on the options for electric appliances, particularly furnaces and water heaters, and the benefit of pairing electrification with the installation of renewable energy. Create incentives to support fuel switching.
NBI’s Advanced Water Heater Initiative is a collaborative, market transformation effort of over 50 organizations working to catalyze a rapid transition to high-efficiency, grid-connected heat pump water heaters. As part of the project, several major manufacturers are about to release new 120 volt heat pump water heaters intended to simplify residential conversions from gas water heaters.
The Pocket Guide to Home Electrification provides ninety pages of detailed advice about electrifying for homeowners, with interesting ideas about ways to do it more cheaply, a lot of pricing information, and a bunch of case studies…
The ACEEE is collaborating with Tacoma, which is considering a municipal code or policy to incentivize or require all-electric space and water heating equipment in existing rental properties.
Ithaca NY is working with BlocPower to electrify all 6,000 buildings in the city of 30,000, leasing and maintaining the equipment with no money down, and a 15 year performance guarantee. (They issued an RFP for a program manager.) ILSR did an interview about the project, including workdorce development and financing, with the city’s Director of Sustainability.
Portland’s Community Energy Project has a program to Electrify Everyone that uses donations to replace old gas water heaters in low income homes that the program is weatherizing with electric heat pump hot water.
San Jose offers portable induction cooktops and compatible pans on loan for two weeks to people who are interested in trying cooking on one. So do the Berkeley Public Library’s Tool Lending Library, and Sonoma Clean Power. David Roberts recently did a podcast about the new 120V induction stoves, which include a 4 kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery. It provides boosted power for the stove; may well let you avoid some electrical work, perhaps including a panel upgrade; can be installed in the factory efficiently and more cheaply; offers a way to power some services like a refrigerator and the stove for several days if the grid goes down; and might even be used to provide grid services at some point.
