“Now you’re cooking with gas!” When I was a kid, this was an expression connoting perfection. It meant you were finally working efficiently after a period of struggle. The idiom originated among wise-cracking comedians of the late 1930s when people were transitioning from wood stoves. The gas industry amplified it in the early 1940s to convince consumers to use gas rather than electricity for their new appliances.
How times have changed. On May 3, the Home Electrification Fair hosted by the City, Alameda Municipal Power (AMP), and Community Action for a Sustainable Alameda (CASA) at Faction Brewing offered the opportunity to talk to representatives from organizations helping residents understand why and how to transition away from natural gas and fully electrify their homes.
Why electricity?
While natural gas is cleaner and safer than burning coal and petroleum, AMP now provides 100% clean energy from sources that include wind, geothermal, biomass, and hydroelectric, that are renewable and have little to no carbon emissions. By contrast, natural gas still emits pollutants such as methane, which is 86 times stronger than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas (GHG) and is harmful to health.
GHGs trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, leading to a warming effect that can lead to climate change, extreme weather events, and rising sea levels. In Alameda, the sea level is predicted to rise by at least two feet in the coming decades. However, some areas, such as Bay Farm Island, are sinking more than 0.4 inches a year, exacerbating the effect.
As part of its Climate Action and Resiliency Plan to address these issues, the City aims to reduce GHGs by 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2045. Building decarbonization, the process of shifting natural gas use in buildings towards appliances that rely on electricity and reducing energy use, is a key part of the plan.
Health, safety, comfort, and climate benefits
A Pocket Guide to All-Electric Retrofits of Single-Family Homes reports that all-electric homes offer superior health, safety, comfort, climate, and potential economic benefits. Children in homes with gas stoves are 42% more likely to develop asthma than those with electric stoves. Home chefs using gas stoves have twice the risk of lung and heart disease and are three times as likely to need asthma medication than are people cooking on electric stoves. These health impacts are tied to pollutants released when gas is burned, such as nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and ultra-fine particulates.
Electric cooktops, water heaters, space heaters, and clothes dryers all present lower fire risks and lower explosion risks than their gas-fired alternatives, particularly during an earthquake, construction, or renovation.
Notably, modern induction cooktops use magnetism to heat cookware directly, offering the speed and precision of gas stoves without the health risks or the unnecessary fossil fuel consumption. This feature makes it easier to transition from gas to electric cooking. And because the cooktop itself doesn’t get hot, spills are easier to clean.
Heating a home with a heat pump can dramatically improve comfort due to quieter, more consistent warmth. While a gas furnace noisily turns off and on, a heat pump fan stays on continuously at a lower, quieter speed and evenly heats the home. Heat pumps can heat and cool the home with a single system, and you can heat or cool only the rooms you want.
Finally, replacing gas appliances with electric reaps big climate and clean air benefits due to two key factors—heat pump appliances are three to four times more efficient than gas, and grid electricity is increasingly sourced with more renewable energy. In Alameda, AMP provides 100% non-carbon power to all customers.
Return on investment
How much will it cost to electrify, and will there be a return on investment? City Sustainability and Resilience Manager Daniele Mieler responded, “In many cases, home electrification can save money on utility bills. The upfront cost can be expensive, but depending on the condition of your current equipment, some of the cost would be borne regardless, and the tax credits and rebates help quite a bit.”
Mieler provided an example: “Last summer, I switched out my water heater for a heat pump and was able to access …tax credits and rebates that covered much of the cost. My electric bill went up a tiny bit, but my gas bill went down more. These units are so energy efficient; they require very little energy to run. We also have an advantage in Alameda where our electricity prices are about 45% lower than PG&E’s. While electric bills increase a modest amount each year, gas prices fluctuate with the market, making it harder to predict future costs.”
Jarrod Juanita, AMP’s Acting Customer Programs Supervisor, said that while gas-to-electric conversions have longer payback periods than conventional energy efficiency projects, the health, safety, comfort, and climate benefits are considerable. AMP’s website provides steps to start, including a home electrification guide, an electrification estimator to evaluate your benefits, and information on AMP rebates.
City Building Official Oscar Davalos explained that the permit center team provides technical expertise and support to the community to make the permitting process more accessible and less intimidating. “We make ourselves available,” he said.
Other resources for getting started
The Fair offered other resources to help residents determine where to start, how to calculate costs and savings, and how to select contractors. Rewiring America, an electrification nonprofit, has an online Savings Calculator and Personal Electrification Planner. The Planner generates a recommended project list after you enter information about your home, appliances, and goals. Clicking on each recommended project brings up a report on estimated annual savings and upfront costs, climate impact, applicable rebates and credits, a project guide, and a contractor directory.
The Switch is On is another nonprofit that provides tools to find rebates and contractors, plus detailed information on the benefits of different home electrification solutions.
For Bay Area residents who would like to access solar energy but are renters or homeowners ineligible for rooftop solar because of siting issues, a poor credit score, or because they’d need a new roof, the nonprofit Brightsaver offers plug-in solar panels.
For a more hands-on process, Quit Carbon, a certified B Corp, offers an expert team to help determine which appliances are right for you, how much the projects will cost, whether you need to upgrade your electric panel, which contractors are vetted, and federal and local incentives you qualify for. Their team guides you from planning to finding contractors for free.
Now you’re cooking with… electricity
For those ready to switch to electricity and conserve energy, the Fair offered numerous vendors ready to help. Copper Home featured an induction stove that can be plugged into a regular 120v outlet, enabling homeowners to replace a gas-burning stove without needing a permit. The stove features a backup battery that enables cooking even when the power goes out.
Renters interested in converting to induction cooking or homeowners interested in testing it before committing to a full stove can buy portable induction cooktops like the ones offered as raffle prizes at the Fair. CASA offered a checklist to help anyone conserve energy and reduce waste, thereby saving money and helping the environment.
Contractors included 1-888-Heat-Pumps, a local heat pump installation company, who emphasized the company’s commitment to competitive wages for installers and treating employees well, which they believe translates to superior customer service.
Electrify My Home emphasized the company’s approach to whole-house electrification, including tailored load calculations to optimize energy use, thereby avoiding oversized or undersized systems. The company offers HVAC, water heating, and electrical installation.
Alameda Tiny Homes designs, permits, and builds all-electric ADUs and assists with primary residence electrification upgrades while on-site. Sun’s Free Solar focuses on solar panel and electric vehicle charging installation.
Alameda Bicycle offers a selection of e-bikes with “attitude-free, expert advice.” The Alameda Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) Club enjoys NEVs—small, battery electric vehicles with a maximum speed of 25 mph, suitable for getting around Alameda. (Contact Robert LaThanh at [email protected] for more information about the club.)
The Radioactives perform “(I’m Your) Heat Pump.”
Getting inspired
Wandering around the Fair to the funky soul tunes of The Radioactives performing their eco-hits like (I’m Your) Heat Pump and (Our Love is) Geothermal, it was hard not to feel inspired. For those wanting to be active beyond their own homes, Community Action for Sustainable Alameda (CASA) is a community coalition raising awareness, mobilizing community action, and facilitating the implementation of programs to achieve Alameda’s climate and sustainability goals.
Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a grassroots environmental group that trains and supports volunteers to build relationships with their elected representatives in order to influence climate policy. GRID Alternatives works to build community-powered solutions to advance economic and environmental justice through renewable energy.
The City’s Sustainability and Resilience Department also invites residents to subscribe to their newsletter.
Contributing writer Karin K. Jensen covers boards and commissions for the Alameda Post. Contact her via [email protected]. Her writing is collected at https://linktr.ee/karinkjensen and https://alamedapost.com/Karin-K-Jensen.
