One Resident’s Path to Switching to All-Electric
By Jon Unger
Environmental and health concerns over the continued use of fossil fuels, prompted us to choose to electrify as much of our home as we could.
Our first step was to increase the efficiency of our home through air sealing and insulating our building envelope. We even added wall insulation to our unfinished basement, although not all the way down to the floor.
A few years ago, we knew that our well-maintained heating system was beginning to age out. We had two separate natural gas boilers: a steam boiler in the original building and a high efficiency hydronic boiler in an addition.
We installed ducts in our basement which, through floor registers, service the HVAC needs of the first floor, and we installed floor mounted mini split units in each of the four main rooms of our second floor.
The first floor consists of one zone, and each one of the second floor mini splits acts as its own individually controllable zone. There are times when we only need to cool or warm one or two rooms, and there are times when all units are working simultaneously. There is plenty of flexibility, and the system has performed quite comfortably for us.
We decided to keep the high efficiency hydronic boiler as a "backup." We have not really needed it. On the night during the winter of 2023, when the temperature was -12° F, our system worked fine, although not as efficiently as it would at 0° F and above. We ran the hydronic boiler just that one night, more to make sure that it would work than because the heat pump couldn't warm our house. We chose a heat pump system that is specifically designed for the climate that we live in.
Here are some considerations from our experience:
Your home or building will have its own needs, and you and your contractor can best determine what kind of system would work most suitably for you.
If there are potentially different design or equipment options, ask for proposals for each, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each. Understand the physical layout of the spaces where equipment will be in order to maximize ease of servicing and to allow access to used spaces.
Try to receive estimates from multiple contractors who are geographically reasonably close by and ask lots of questions. Your contractor should be aware of any rebates or tax incentives for which your HVAC system might be eligible.
Our gas water heater was on borrowed time, and so we replaced it with a heat pump water heater. While our cellar is no longer heated with the warmth from the steam boiler, it remains warm enough to allow the water heater to operate in its most efficient “heat pump” mode. Our basement remains in the mid to upper 50s in the winter, reasonably higher than the 37° F minimum recommended by its manufacturer.
If need be, the water heater can run in a “hybrid” mode, utilizing the heat pump in combination with electric resistance elements. Heat pump water heaters also serve to dehumidify and cool the ambient air,
Since a heat pump water heater does not need a gas or oil line to feed it, switching can provide an opportunity for added efficiency by moving the heater closer to the location of the most frequent hot water use, allowing for a lessening of the length of the hot water pipe, thereby shortening the wait time for hot water to arrive.
As with an HVAC system, your contractor should be able to inform you about rebates or tax incentives for which your water heater may be eligible.
Our most recent change on our way to having an all-electric home, involved the removal of our gas range with its unhealthful open combustion, and its replacement with an induction cooktop range. There was, for us, a very brief learning curve as we adjusted to cooking with induction. However, we could not be happier. Induction cooktops are fast, efficient, heat evenly, and are extremely controllable.
While we hope to add solar panels to our roof in the future, we are looking to "green" our electrical supply through an alternate provider in the near term and, eventually, through the Andover Community Power program when it becomes available.
