Here’s how to create an electrification plan for your home
It may be overwhelming to think about all the ways you might have Improve your home. There’s been a long-standing kitchen renovation, appliance upgrade – and oh, maybe Solar Panel On the roof.
But you probably don’t have unlimited time and money, so you need to prioritize which upgrades are most important to you. And if you’re renovating Sustainability Ideas With this in mind (enhancing efficiency and reducing fossil fuel use), it can be even more difficult to choose which projects make the most sense.
It’s difficult to know where to make your home more energy efficient. Experts say they start with a home energy audit.
Thankfully, you don’t have to make all of these decisions on your own. Nonprofit organizations’ online tools Rewire AmericaIt is called Personal electrification planner, It can help you understand it. It allows you to enter information about your home, and provide about how you can improve energy in your home, and when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – when – you – when – when – when -.
As Certified Electrical Coach Trained by Rewiring AmericaI recently helped two homeowners friends use the tools to figure out their plans. Here’s how it went and how you can do it:
How to use an electrification planner for your personal use
I recently became a certified electric coach. It was free online.
Personal electrification planner America is very gratefully easy to use.
Start by choosing your home (home, townhouse, apartment, mobile home) and creating a free account on the website. This account will allow you to return to the planner later and save all your recommendations.
Once you enter, the planner will ask for your address and zoom in to the satellite view of your particular home. (This is a pretty cool feature. When I showed it to my friends, their faces brightened up.)
Once the planner enters zero in your home, they ask you to fill out basic information such as the area and type of heating system. For my friend, this information was pre-set and was almost accurate, so some things had to be fixed.
In the next step, the planner will ask you to rank your top two motivations to impress your home. You might choose to “Improve your health and comfort” or “future future for my home.” My friend chose “lower your energy bill” and “lower your climate impact.”
Next, you’ll need to look at EV charging your home with information on the main vehicle and the type of fuel it uses.
Additionally, the final prompt will enter your annual household income and household size to ensure that the algorithm matches the qualifying financial incentives.
Clicking (Done) will lead the site to a page called “My Electrification Plan.” From start to finish, this process didn’t take my friend within 5 minutes. And now they were staring at a deep, personalized stack of information about how to electrify their particular home.
What do you have in your personal electrification plan?
The results of using a personal electrification planner are personalized game plans that showcase every step of each project.
My friend’s project list started with some low sagging fruits, including getting a home energy audit. Installing the solar panel or Upgrade to a heat pump. In the meantime, there was a medium sized proposal that would swapp to the Induction stove Or buy Electric Lawn Mower.
Within each project, the proposal was a separate pack of information. Click on any of them and you will find the cost and benefits, available rebates, step-by-step instructions, and a complete breakdown of potential contractors.
Better yet, for each project, the planner estimates how new technology will affect utility bills. For my friend who lives in upstate New York, switching to appliances can actually increase your bills as the power to gas fee ratio is useful.
What my friends plan to do on their electrification roadmap
My friend has no plans to stay in his current home for a long period of time. They have lived in detached houses in suburban homes for several years, but they nurse their dream of one day building a house that they can endure forever.
With that in mind, I wasn’t going to recommend that they spend tens of thousands of dollars on heat pumps or solar panels, but that may not be financially rewarded in the short term.
Instead, we focused on non-sexy (and inexpensive) home improvements that could help us achieve our goals of lower energy costs and using fossil fuels: insulation and weather resistance. I told my friend My recent experience (as a tenant) got free insulation It was installed in my home and was fully subsidized by the Massachusetts financial incentives.
And I left them with a small, but important next step: Home Energy Audit. These ratings. Energy Agency is the nation Often payallow the contractor to come to your home and inspect your current energy system and insulation. After that, we improved weather resistance and New heating system.
Why should I make a personal electrification plan?
No matter your budget, wherever you are on your home’s electrification journey, This online tool A great way to learn more about your options.
Without anything else, the planner can give you some ideas that you may not have thought of before. Or it can help you make sure you qualify for a discount or rebate. Additionally, a step-by-step guide that you can log in and access at any time will help you stay on track with each project.
If you have 10 minutes, it’s worth the time.