My Electrification Project

With the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passing the senate this past week-end, there will be many opportunities and new incentives for us to electrify our homes. In this newsletter, I want to share my experience of installing a heat pump to replace an aging, -actually ancient, central furnace. Even though this is a departure from my usual writing about life and climate coaching, I am hoping that you will find it of use and interest.

About a year ago, I embarked in this project of replacing our 1950s natural gas guzzling heater that was at best 60% efficient, extremely noisy and expensive to run, just to keep the house barely warm. This was an item on my personal climate punch list to reduce my personal carbon footprint (read more about climate actions and climate punch lists in my blog post of January 2022).

Living in San Francisco Bay Area (California), I started my journey with a call to the Bay Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN). BayREN is a coalition of the Bay Area’s nine counties — a network of local governments partnering to promote resource efficiency at the regional level, focusing on energy, water and greenhouse gas reduction. I had heard about the coalition on climate podcast and collective My Climate Journey. On BayREN’s website I found extensive resources on how to be more energy savvy, and I got in touch with an energy advisor who guided me on my options for replacing our furnace. BayREN also provides a list of participating energy professionals who know about the rebates. I selected three contractors in my county from that list to start scoping the project.

Retrofitting an older house with a new, more energy efficient HVAC system is not as simple as it may seem. There are many options to review and consider to size the system properly: one system or multi mini-split systems, heating only or heating and cooling, whole house fan or A/C, etc... And once you think you have selected what you want at a cost you can afford, you may be faced with the need to remove asbestos, upgrade your electric panel and either insulate or replace ductwork. Some of these upgrades are rebate eligible, some are not.

I was lucky in selecting an amazing contractor (whose name I am happy to share if you email me): the work was flawlessly completed in two weeks, last May. Working with BayREN and this contractor was instrumental in getting an all-electrical system that now heats and cools the house silently and efficiently, and which renders the house so much more comfortable. But it took 10 months from start to finish, and was expensive despite the rebates.

With the Inflation Reduction Act, it’s likely that more incentives in the form of rebates will be available. I am hopeful that as a result, more of us will take advantage of these to electrify our homes whether for a cooktop, a water heater or central heating. All these efforts will collectively reduce our green house gas emissions which is critical on this warming planet. In my house, we are still using natural gas for heating water and for cooking: electrifying these will be top of list for my next climate actions list. In the mean time, by replacing our central heating system with a heat pump, we are not only reducing our fossil fuel consumption, but we are also gaining the extra comfort of having a cooling system which may prove necessary as the planet continues to heat up. I am looking forward to comparing our year-to-year energy costs in May 2023.

Whether or not you live in San Francisco Bay Area, my recommendation is to look for organizations like BayREN that can guide you in your electrification project. You also need to make sure your electricity is clean. Ours is provided by Peninsula Clean Energy, (a Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) and the official electricity provider for San Mateo County) who is on an agressive path to provide 100% renewable energy 24/7 by 2025. (Read how they plan to do that in this fascinating whitepaper).

If you want to know more about my journey to electrification or if you would like to share yours, please email me.

Every Job Is a Climate Job

To change everything, we need everyone.
~Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katherine K. Wilkinson (All We Can Save)

After seeing the powerful engagement generated and the actions that resulted from my 10-week All We Can Save-Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis book circle (Jan-April 2021) and following the lead of All We Can Save project and Drawdown labs who have partnered to expand the AWCS circles to the workplace, I am happy to announce that I am offering my coaching services (probono or by donations) to support YOU in leading such a circle in the workplace. If you are wanting to take climate conversations to your workplace and need support to do so, click the button below to get started.

from All We Can Save project

Let Them Not Say by Jane Hirshfield

Let them not say:   we did not see it.
We saw.

Let them not say:   we did not hear it.
We heard.

Let them not say:   they did not taste it.
We ate, we trembled.

Let them not say:   it was not spoken, not written.
We spoke,
we witnessed with voices and hands.

Let them not say:  they did nothing.
We did not-enough.

Let them say, as they must say something: 

A kerosene beauty.
It burned.

Let them say we warmed ourselves by it,
read by its light, praised,
and it burned.

Happy 51st Earth Day with Earthrise by Amanda Gorman

The following poem by Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of the United States Amanda Gorman was read from stage at the Los Angeles Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training on Tuesday, August 28, 2018. You can view Amanda reciting the poem with this YouTube video.

Our Purpose in Poetry:

Or, Earthrise

Dedicated to Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project 

On Christmas Eve, 1968, astronaut Bill Anders 

Snapped a photo of the earth

As Apollo 8 orbited the moon.

Those three guys 

Were surprised

To see from their eyes

Our planet looked like an earthrise

A blue orb hovering over the moon’s gray horizon, 

with deep oceans and silver skies. 

It was our world’s first glance at itself 

Our first chance to see a shared reality, 

A declared stance and a commonality; 

A glimpse into our planet’s mirror,

And as threats drew nearer,

Our own urgency became clearer,

As we realize that we hold nothing dearer 

than this floating body we all call home. 

We’ve known

That we’re caught in the throes

Of climactic changes some say

Will just go away,

While some simply pray

To survive another day;

For it is the obscure, the oppressed, the poor, 

Who when the disaster

Is declared done,

Still suffer more than anyone. 

Climate change is the single greatest challenge of our time, 

Of this, you’re certainly aware.

It’s saddening, but I cannot spare you

From knowing an inconvenient fact, because

It’s getting the facts straight that gets us to act and not to wait. 

So I tell you this not to scare you, 

But to prepare you, to dare you 

To dream a different reality, 

Where despite disparities

We all care to protect this world,

This riddled blue marble, this little true marvel 

To muster the verve and the nerve

To see how we can serve

Our planet. You don’t need to be a politician

To make it your mission to conserve, to protect, 

To preserve that one and only home

That is ours,

To use your unique power

To give next generations the planet they deserve. 

We are demonstrating, creating, advocating 

We heed this inconvenient truth, because we need to be anything but lenient

With the future of our youth. 

And while this is a training,

in sustaining the future of our planet, 

There is no rehearsal. The time is 

Now

Now

Now, 

Because the reversal of harm,

And protection of a future so universal 

Should be anything but controversial. 

So, earth, pale blue dot 

We will fail you not. 

Just as we chose to go to the moon 

We know it’s never too soon

To choose hope.

We choose to do more than cope 

With climate change 

We choose to end it—

We refuse to lose.

Together we do this and more

Not because it’s very easy or nice

But because it is necessary,

Because with every dawn we carry

the weight of the fate of this celestial body orbiting a star. 

And as heavy as that weight sounded, it doesn’t hold us down, 

But it keeps us grounded, steady, ready, 

Because an environmental movement of this size 

Is simply another form of an earthrise. 

To see it, close your eyes.

Visualize that all of us leaders in this room

and outside of these walls or in the halls, all

of us changemakers are in a spacecraft,

Floating like a silver raft

in space, and we see the face of our planet anew.

We relish the view;

We witness its round green and brilliant blue,

Which inspires us to ask deeply, wholly:

What can we do?

Open your eyes.

Know that the future of

this wise planet

Lies right in sight:

Right in all of us. Trust

this earth uprising.

All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before

For it is our hope that implores us, at our uncompromising core, 

To keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for.