They say that we can Electrify Everything! and have it all.
The environmental cri de cœur these days is Electrify Everything!- get our homes, offices and cars off fossil fuels because the electrical grid is decarbonizing. This is a wonderful idea, although this TreeHugger has suggested that it is more important to Reduce Demand! But let’s not be doctrinaire; we need both. As Frank Sinatra famously sang about Love and Marriage, you can’t have one without the other.
That’s why I was excited to learn about the Rocky Mountain Institute’s new report, The Economics of Electrifying Buildings, written by Sherri Billimoria, Leia Guccione, Mike Henchen and Leah Louis-Prescott. They look at the newish heat pump HVAC appliances, water heaters and smart thermostats and find, to my surprise, that they actually cost less to operate than fossil fuel powered equipment.
In many scenarios, notably for most new home construction, we find electrification of space and water heating and air conditioning reduces the homeowner’s costs over the lifetime of the appliances when compared with performing the same functions with fossil fuels. Costs are also reduced for customers in several retrofit scenarios…. New homes and homes currently lacking natural gas service also avoid the cost of gas mains, services, and meters not needed in all-electric neighborhoods.
RMI houses from cover/Screen capture
