This column is a bit different from my usual fare.It is more like an “operation guide” for household decarbonization.Although my writing and public speeches usually focus on how to force our government into emergency mode, ironically, one of the follow-up questions I get asked most often is, “How do I switch from a gas stove to an electric heat pump, Who is your contractor?” So, this is for all of you.
As we seek to respond to climate emergencies, retrofitting existing houses and buildings is at the core of a strong plan.In Canada, the fossil fuels we burn in buildings-mainly “natural gas”-account for about 12% of domestic greenhouse gas emissions (approximately evenly distributed between residential and non-residential buildings).This does not include the carbon embedded in building construction, the burning of fossil fuels for power generation in certain provinces, or the greenhouse gases related to the extraction and production of fossil fuels that we burn directly in buildings.In cities, greenhouse gases produced by buildings usually account for more than half of local emissions.
Discussions about retrofitting our houses usually focus on how to improve energy efficiency—improving insulation, using programmable thermostats, sealing leaks, etc.But the problem is: Although these measures help reduce emissions and household costs, we cannot achieve carbon emissions-zero as a society that only improves efficiency.The only way to achieve zero carbon emissions in our buildings and houses is fuel exchange, which means stopping the use and burning of fossil fuels in our structures.In particular, we need to stop using “natural gas” (now mainly fracturing methane gas) to heat our houses and water and to cook our food.Of all the actions that families can take to deal with the climate crisis, this shift is one of the most important.From now on, we need all new buildings to avoid connecting to natural gas pipelines.In the next few years, we need all existing buildings to switch from fossil fuel heat sources to renewable energy, which in most cases means electricity.
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After about a year, my home no longer uses fossil fuels.It’s not easy, and it’s not cheap.But it can be done.In this article, I shared how my family did it.Some of the things we do are specific to the province of BC where we live, but many apply everywhere.When telling this story, I am not trying to express a virtue signal.Instead, I just want to provide some guidance because people want to know.One of the obstacles to climate action is that many of us find it difficult to imagine how our houses will function without fossil fuels.So here, I provide you with a picture to show what it looks like.
Let me state from the beginning that there is no doubt that a truly successful climate plan requires collective action at the political/policy level (see more below).Any plan that relies on individual families to voluntarily implement the content I describe here will get us into trouble.In addition, I own my own house, which provides me with privileges, opportunities and obligations that most renters do not exist.However, in the end, the comprehensive climate plan does require all our households to stop using fossil fuels.Therefore, this article will show you how to do this.
A few years ago, my home—a 12-year-old, 1,400-square-foot, well-insulated duplex house in East Vancouver—was heated with a high-efficiency gas boiler.The hot water produced by the boiler can not only meet our direct water needs, but also can be used to provide lovely radiant heating floor pipes in winter.We also have a gas fireplace in the living room that we rarely use, and we cook on the gas stove.
On average, we pay BC Hydro a monthly fee of less than US$80 for electricity usage. There is little change throughout the year. We pay FortisBC for natural gas usage.Our monthly gas bill is about US$50, ranging from US$20 in the summer to US$85 in the winter.
From the beginning, out of concerns about the climate emergency, we knew we wanted to get the gas out of the house.We also welcome the idea of ​​removing exhaust fumes from our living spaces, as well as the health and safety benefits for us and our children.We know that the main recommendation is to switch to an electric heat pump system, but which one?
First, it is useful to explain what a heat pump is.Many people confuse it with geothermal systems, which absorb heat from deep underground through pipes.The heat pump is not an underground system.It is usually an outdoor unit about 3×2.5×1 feet with a large fan (see the top photo), which extracts heat from the ambient air (yes, even in winter), and then the pipes are heated indoors, or take the heat away A central duct system or wall-mounted device the size of an air conditioner in each room.BC Hydro has a good short video explaining how the heat pump works.An added benefit is that in the summer, the same system runs in reverse, removing heat from the home and carrying cold air into it.
In many respects, the term “heat pump” is misused.It is more accurate to name it “air comfort” system or “heating and cooling” pump.
Heat pumps are more efficient than traditional skirting electric heating systems (hence lower operating costs).That’s because heat pumps do not generate heat, but extract and move heat-easier!
Our conversion journey started with consulting several experts I know to gather suggestions on which heat pump system is best for us.(This may be a bit overkill; for most people, it is not necessary, but I know I want to explain what we are doing and why we do it.) We considered an air-to-water heat pump that allows us to maintain our Radiant floors, but few contractors are familiar with these systems.In addition, such a system, at least in our homes, seems unlikely to provide summer cooling particularly well.So in the end, we decided to abandon our radiant floor and adopt the more typical air-to-air system described above.
The first thing we did-it is expected that the electrification process may significantly increase our monthly electricity bill-we signed a contract with a local solar company, Solar Connect, and installed a set on the roof of our garage in the summer of 2019 14 battery boards.Solar panels are not cheap, but the cost is declining, and we will pay at least three times the cost with a lower monthly electricity bill during their working life.BC Hydro provides a simple net metering plan, and any electricity we produce in excess of monthly demand will be credited to our BC Hydro account.At the peak of summer, we produce more electricity than we consume, and accumulate a small amount of credits, which we withdraw in winter.
Since the electricity system in British Columbia is a hydroelectric system, solar panels will not directly reduce our province’s greenhouse gas emissions (in provinces that still use coal and/or natural gas for power generation, solar panels do help to reduce greenhouse gases) .However, in addition to controlling our monthly electricity bills, solar panels mean that we are providing public benefit; even after our home changes fuel, we have not significantly increased the use of the BC Hydro system.If many homes and buildings do this, utilities will not need to make huge new investments in new power production capacity.In other words, this step is not necessary to exhaust the gas from our home, so please take extra consideration.
Secondly, we took out the gas stove and replaced it with a new induction cooker.I know many of you swear by the joy of cooking with gas.I said-you should try to induce electricity.As many chefs will tell you, they are amazing!The induction furnace is completely different from the old coil appliances.Like gases, they provide heat immediately, and only to the required level.And they are safer than old electric stoves or gas stoves because the induction works through the magnetic connection between the stove surface and the bottom of the pot or frying pan.Once the pot is removed, it will immediately cool down, which greatly reduces the risk of fire or injury.And there is no more breathing gas.
Next, in May 2020, the local contractor Ashton Plumbing and Heating installed the heat pump system. This process only took a few days.The internal gas pipeline is hermetically closed.Our gas boiler and supporting hot water tank were removed and replaced by a Mitsubishi four-zone heat pump system (a wall-mounted unit downstairs and one for each of the three bedrooms upstairs.) The external unit is very quiet, and four pipes are carried from the host Hot or cold air to indoor wall-mounted equipment.(The pipes are very scattered, running along a rear outer wall, and then through the attic to the two furthest units.)
At the same time, we installed a traditional electric water heater (there is also a heat pump option for hot water, but we don’t go that way).
The last Reno: We removed the gas fireplace and replaced it with some beautiful built-in bookshelves that we liked better.
After all this is done, the last—and deeply gratifying—action: We closed the gas pipe to our home and cancelled our FortisBC account.
So, what is the price of all this?The following is a breakdown of the elements needed to get gas out of the home:
The price of the heat pump may cause the impact of some stickers.However, both the Government of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver now provide rebates for households that switch from a gas system to an electricity system.When we exchanged fuel, these rebates were US$3,000 and US$6,000, reducing the net cost of the heat pump to US$8,000.Since then, the province has provided a rebate of 3,000 Canadian dollars, so the net cost is now 5,000 Canadian dollars.And considering that in about five years, it may be time to replace the boiler anyway, and the cost will be close to the net price of the heat pump.
The operating cost of electric water heaters has always been negligible (we wash clothes in cold water, and generally wash dishes by hand).When we switched from the gas stove to induction electricity, I did not notice the increase either.
It is true that our electricity bills increase significantly only during the peak period of winter; since our solar panels can only provide moderate electricity in the darker winter and the heat pump runs all day, our electricity consumption will definitely increase.Comparing our winter BC Hydro bills before and after the conversion, minus the gas bills we paid in the past, the cost seems to increase by 10 to 20 US dollars per month.
However, overall, in the first year after the swap, our Hydro bill averaged $105 per month, which was about $25 more than before the journey began.But we no longer have a monthly Fortis gas bill of about US$50. Therefore, even with the addition of summer air conditioning, with the help of solar panels, our monthly utility costs are still reduced by about US$25.We also charge our electric cars (although we don’t drive much, so these costs are small).
Over time, as the rising carbon price in the next 10 years will push up the cost of natural gas, the cost advantage of electricity relative to natural gas may increase (although on the other hand, we also need our government to plan for their electricity development. Be wise to avoid driving up electricity bills and unnaturally preventing the substitution of fossil fuels for fuel).
There is no doubt that this conversion also increases the value of our homes, because once a strong climate policy is in place, future homeowners will not face the inevitable fuel replacement needs, and they will benefit from the upfront capital cost we assumed for solar energy. Panel and heat pump.
The biggest benefit is that we have eliminated greenhouse gas emissions at home, cancelled our FortisBC account, and the system is running very well!We have comfortable heat in the winter (there is no need for a backup heat source in the coastal areas of British Columbia).The summer cooling-a benefit that we rarely noticed at the beginning of this process-is very effective; during the deadly high temperature last summer, our home was still very comfortable, and many friends and family members ended up visiting for a few hours. Escape record temperatures.
In addition, our children seem to be proud of the new system and love to show it to visitors, and it is well worth it.
As mentioned earlier, by encouraging and motivating families to do what we do voluntarily, we will not win the climate emergency.Although each family can play its own role, tackling the climate crisis requires collective and state-led actions.As my family’s journey of transformation has shown, this process can be complicated and costly. If we want everyone to do this on their own, we will fail in the climate battle.
First of all, if electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas, it makes little sense to convert our houses and vehicles into electricity.I live in British Columbia, which means that electricity comes almost entirely from renewable sources.But in most jurisdictions, this is not the case.Making this reality ubiquitous is not something that any of us can achieve on our own, but can only be achieved through collective demands for such changes to our power infrastructure.
Second, we need to make the switch to electric heat pumps easier and more affordable, especially for low-income families.Government rebates have helped, but not enough.What if we have a new Crown company (or a subsidiary of BC Hydro) or some kind of public enterprise that mass-produces greenhouse gas-free electric heat pumps and employs a large number of installers?With the elimination of profit margins and the benefits of economies of scale, the price of heat pumps will fall.The installer can come to our home to simplify the process and provide us with clear suggestions, and each of us does not have to doubt which contractor uses us the least.
Third, innovation in public financing will also help reduce the upfront cost of capital.Most people do not have the cash to purchase these items.In addition, a factor hindering the purchase of solar panels and heat pumps is that some people worry that if they eventually sell their houses within a few years, future owners will realize most of the cost savings of these investments.Imagine if the financing for these large purchases was provided by utility companies such as BC Hydro, and the loans would be paid and repaid through monthly utility bills over time.This means that the cost of capital and loans will stay in the building instead of the original purchaser, because the proceeds will flow to the people who owned the house at the time.
In any future situation, when we are facing a climate crisis, energy costs are rising. Therefore, the energy poverty and cost pressures of low- and middle-income households are a problem that needs to be alleviated.This is something we can only do together.
Finally, while all these encouragement and financial assistance (policy carrots) are needed, fuel exchange cannot be left to voluntary goodwill.We also need the country to set a clear short-term date before the mandatory replacement of fuel (policy adherence).Solving the climate crisis and eliminating greenhouse gases in our homes are not optional.We need to accomplish this.
Three months after canceling our gas account, we received a letter from FortisBC.Well, we angrily added the red ink text to “fix” the letter and share it widely on social media.As I outlined in my previous column, the government needs to crack down on such insidious efforts as gas companies to stop electrification efforts.Natural gas companies like FortisBC are regulated monopolies and should not be allowed to hinder the progress of our life tasks.
The winter temperature in most parts of Canada is below zero, and the efficiency of the heat pump will be greatly reduced.Do you recommend heat pumps and electric skirtings?
Ole, the Mitsubishi heat pump that we installed 2 years ago heats our home until it is below -25 C, and then an electronic component in the installation will step in to help.We were able to completely dismantle our oil furnace because the Carrier heat pump, which we had served us for nearly 30 years, only heated to about -5 C in winter, and then the oil furnace had to be activated.Hope this information is helpful to you.
Then there is the geothermal option, which is no longer discussed but still exists.Those are not actually geothermal. They are still heat pumps. They just take advantage of the fact that if you are far enough underground, the temperature does not change much throughout the year.Geothermal heat pumps should not be bothered by the cold winter.The upfront cost of this hole may be higher, but only once, and I think the operating cost of these things is very low.
The large ice storm in January 1998 caused tremendous damage to trees and power infrastructure in eastern Ontario, southern Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.Millions of people have been out of power for days to weeks.My apartment in downtown Ottawa only had a power outage for a few hours, but colleagues in the suburbs and remote areas bought generators and used gas or wood-burning fireplaces for heating.More than two-thirds of Quebec households use electric heating and have gas or wood as a backup.
Great article.After using the heat pump and electric hot water myself two years ago, one small addition I can make is that I installed a timer on the electric water heater so that it only uses electricity during off-peak hours.If the stored hot water starts to run out because the heater element is frequently turned off, increasing the temperature of the thermostat on the water tank will effectively increase the amount of hot water on hand without the need to go to a larger water tank.I also put another heat insulation jacket around the water tank to improve the heat preservation ability of the water tank.Therefore, we will never run out of hot water, and the cost of hot water is drastically reduced compared to using without a timer.
Yes, everyone has to do this, but the article clarifies that this is a simple procedure now; it’s just about how fast our global civilization can produce 2.5 billion heat pumps, because this is the seriousness of the global problem.
I can’t find the carbon footprint of the heat pump manufacturing itself (or the carbon footprint of the old heating system that is still in good condition), so I am not sure when the system will “break even” in terms of climate.
I do know that the two tons of carbon dioxide equivalent it saves each year is almost the carbon footprint of a round-trip flight to Glasgow, so you have about a dozen years before you pay for the large-scale travel of national observers there.A dozen people really went there?
Ha ha!I am glad that others are also paying attention.I did some calculations from the list published in “We are going to COP26!”There were 11 observer reporters and editors a few months ago.I suspect more-some may have brought family members.As far as I know, none of them are formal climate negotiators or participating representatives; all of them may be journalists visiting a place where hundreds of other journalists are already present, and some of them could have signed professional exclusive contracts with Observer. 4K videos and protected emails are linked to Observer’s FTP portal for remote reporting.
The destination (UK) was a COVID hot spot. At that time, more than 50,000 people were infected every day, which increased the moral burden, which for me was an unacceptable violation of basic principles.I am particularly sensitive to this issue because my partner has a weakened immune system and found that the mushroom cloud emitted by millions of people when they travel again on non-essential trips is shocking.A quick Google search found some media reports that about 300 people were infected with COVID on COP26 on November 16 alone, and the Glasgow Police Department’s statement that it was uneasy to control thousands of protesters.Who knew the situation of COP-COVID has evolved into what it is today?
The average information I got from several online websites with different emissions indicates that the carbon dioxide emissions of a passenger’s round-trip flight to the UK is 3.4 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Realizing your proposal at the national level requires huge initiatives from all levels of government.A similar example of conversion from one form of energy to another is the conversion of coal or household natural gas to natural gas in the United Kingdom.It started in 1967, took about 8 years to achieve, and needed to convert about 40 million devices for 14 million customers.The rate of change reached a peak of 2.3 million per year in the 1970s.In Canada, more than 6 million households use natural gas for heating and water supply.However, unlike the United Kingdom, our population is spread over a wide geographic area and is governed by multiple jurisdictions.Natural gas also provides about 10% of electricity.In addition, we have 573,004 kilometers of pipelines, exporting 2.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.There are more than 44,000 employees in the natural gas industry.Converting all of our natural gas equipment and replacing renewable energy to generate electricity is almost an astronomical task that requires political will that is currently lacking.How do you deal with those who are unemployed, let alone thousands of discarded electrical appliances?Although I accept the fact of climate change, I believe that we tend to underestimate the economic consequences of the threat of climate change.We have dug ourselves into a large-scale consumption pit that requires mass production, which in turn requires cheap energy in the form of fossil fuels.In my humble opinion, there is no easy way to get out of that hole.I’m not sure that most people would even consider this task.
Thank you for your reality check.However, it does illustrate that a decent federal national climate action plan must solve all your problems, including embedded energy and job retraining.
BC readers, please note that BC Hydro will reduce its net metering credit by 60% in 2024, thus almost eliminating the break-even point for purchasing solar photovoltaic panels.This is a step backwards in the climate battle and will only undermine Hydro’s ability to reduce the cost of building future generation capacity.The He Jin government must solve this stupid problem before then.