Brian and Perrin – Electrify Now
When I retired from my job in corporate sustainability several years ago, I started researching what individuals could do to fight climate change. I was shocked at how little information was available about how we could all participate in re-inventing our energy systems to get off of fossil fuels – the heart of the problem. I was also delighted to find all of these available solutions that I had never heard of – like heat pumps and heat pump water heaters. Perrin and I decided we should try these things ourselves before we started recommending them to others. In the end, we electrified our house and disconnected from gas – what a pleasure that was!
We had already signed up for the Green Future plan from PGE and we had a small solar array on our house – as much as we could do since we have a lot of shade on our lot. Since then, we have also signed up for Community Solar. Between the three, we get 100% renewable electricity. Then, I took a quick count of all the fossil fuel burning things we owned – furnace, water heater, fireplace insert, stove, barbeque, lawnmower, chainsaw and 2 cars. We decided to start with the water heater.
I called at least 5 plumbing contractors who all advertised heat pump water heaters on their websites before I found someone who was enthusiastic about replacing our gas unit with a heat pump. All the others told me I was crazy and that gas was the best. This was my introduction into the reality of how resistant to change many of the trades people can be – and I get it, it’s a lot easier to keep doing what you know works, but these devices have been around for nearly 20 years. We had to put in a dedicated 240 V line to run the water heater, but it was so worth it. We had a power vent gas unit that was relatively new, but really noisy and the Rheem heat pump is a lot quieter and makes hot water just like the old one. We do like how we can turn it on and off remotely when we are out of town.
Next, we went for the gas furnace. I called a lot of suppliers and ended up going with Sky Heating and Cooling partly because I really hit it off with the salesman, Ryan Braun. He gets the big picture of what we were doing and wanted to help. He didn’t try to talk me into a gas backup like some of the vendors did – I knew we didn’t need that from researching it on the internet. He also gave great service, and the pricing was right in there with all the other contractors we called. The trickiest part of that project was finding the right site for the external unit – you don’t want that right next to your bedroom window or next to the front door if you can help it, but we found a great location. It works great!
We were a little anxious about giving up our gas range – we liked the one we had and thought that gas was the best. When we read the reports about induction, we started to think we should go for it. We are so happy we did. We would never go back to gas after cooking with induction – so much more temperature control, it’s safer and so much easier to clean! Looking back on it, it seems like comparing an i-phone with a telegraph in terms of technology.
The last gas appliance we owned was our fireplace insert. We used it a lot for auxiliary heat and for the ambience it created in our living room. I did not know electric fireplaces existed and couldn’t find any to see in the fireplace stores in town. We finally saw one in real life and we were convinced. It would be really hard to tell the difference unless you really study it and know what to look for. The gas unit overheated our small living room really quickly, so we love how you can adjust the heat or run it without the heater if you want.
Going through this experience was the beginning of Electrify Now. It made me realize that these actions are not that hard and the solutions are actually better than what we had. Even the electric lawn mower and barbeque are an improvement. It also made me realize how important it is to have contractors that you can trust, and that won’t try to talk you into things you don’t need or tell you not to get off of gas. That’s why we started our contractors and products page to help others find good people to work with.
I was a little surprised how nice and friendly the NW Natural gas people were about removing our meter. I was even more surprised when they were so nice about capping our gas line at the street. So thank you to them for helping us totally unplug from the gas system at our house!