Electrification of homes and buildings has been a core focus area of Citizens’ Climate Lobby for the past few years. The best way to reduce appliance emissions is to switch to clean energy and, “to increase the efficiency with which we use all forms of energy to provide the services we want – heating, cooling, cooking, lighting, and more.” Did you know, furnaces generally last 15 to 20 years and hot water heaters 8 to 12 years. Hence, it is essential that we start now to accelerate the process of converting these appliances to clean energy.

Upgrading homes and other buildings can both reduce emissions and save people money. Buildings currently represent over 30% of emissions in the United States. About 10% of building emissions come directly from onsite burning of fossil fuels and almost all the rest from generating the electricity buildings use. The biggest sources of direct emissions are space and water heaters, but stoves and clothes dryers are other examples in the residential sector.

Austin Energy has an smart incentive program to help you convert to electric appliances of all kinds, from thermostats to Energy Star refrigerators, heat pump water heaters, clothes dryers, and freezers. If you are putting of replacing your old appliances, now might be the time to take advantage of these discounts! Click on the image below to reach the Austin Energy discount website.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby has developed an electrification fact sheet you can keep handy to refresh your memory about the importance of electrification.

Health is another critical reason we should switch to electricity. A 2020 report by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) cited research from MIT showing that “combustion emissions from the building sector now contributes to the largest share (37 percent) of premature deaths associated with air pollution, compared to other sectors like transport, industry, and power generation.” Unvented gas stoves produce indoor nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and benzene pollution that can harm human health, including a 24 to 42% increased risk of childhood asthma!

Questions? Reach out to Dana Nuccitelli, Research Coordinator of Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Dana is an environmental scientist and climate journalist with a Master’s Degree in physics. He has written about climate change since 2010 for Skeptical Science, for The Guardian from 2013 to 2018, and since 2018 for Yale Climate Connections. In 2015 he published the book ‘Climatology versus Pseudoscience’, and he has also authored ten peer-reviewed climate studies, including a 2013 paper that found a 97% consensus among peer-reviewed climate science research that humans are the primary cause of global warming. Follow the link above to read more about Dana and to find his email address.