Home Electrification in 45 Days

By: Wei-Tai Kwok, Lafayette, CA

In February 2019, my wife Violet and I attended an East Bay Electrification Expo in Berkeley, CA. We wanted to learn about the benefits and feasibility of renovating our home to remove natural gas and go all-electric. Why? Many who know me know that for the past decade I’ve been trying to explore the ways that I can be part of the solution to the climate crisis, and not part of the problem. I wanted to learn if it was economically possible to “fully get rid of fossil fuels” in my home without it costing a fortune.

The Expo featured exhibit booths from several heat pump equipment distributors and installers, and a few speakers including the guru Sean Armstrong from Redwood Energy who was an excellent resource in understanding the state of the art and demystifying how to go all electric with heating, cooling, hot water and even induction cooktops and electric fireplaces as well. We discovered that there are indeed many electric alternatives to natural gas equipment, and the cost has been dropping and the quality has been rising. Specifically, air-source heat pump technology is now one of the most cost and energy efficient ways to heat and cool our homes.

Violet and I were definitely intrigued and concluded that going electric for our home was completely feasible. The main question then was “How much is this going to cost us for our house?” We needed to get quotes and figure out the health and comfort benefits as well as what would be the return on our investment.

That was the beginning of a “journey” that ended with an all electric, zero-emission home and disconnecting our gas line. I learned so much from the process that I put it into a document that includes every detail that others might be interested in. It includes the following sections:
• Finding Rebates, Incentives and Contractors
• What an energy audit revealed about our house
• Heat Pump Heating & Cooling Selection + Install
• Selecting a High Efficiency, Heat Pump Water Heater

Click here to view the PDF with all the details.

Our all electric home was completed in just 45 days in Summer 2019. It has been working great, and we are saving significantly on our overall energy costs. See the chart below.

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Green Living Stories: Home Electrification with Wei-Tai Kwok