One more Electric Coach in Montana!
I wanted to do a quick shout-out thank-you to the good folks at Rewiring America now that I completed their online course and received my Electric Coach Certification of Knowledge. This training was well worth it, and has given me some added perspective and skills as an energy auditor.
As I mentioned in a recent post, the Electric Coaches program is "an immersive, cohort-based learning experience for individuals ... who are ready to help their peers and communities go electric." The course covers the benefits of heat pumps and other efficient electric appliances like induction stoves, as well as energy audits and weatherization and how it all ties together with the IRA rebates, which incentivize homeowners to go electric and reduce their home energy use.
To get the certificate, I had to complete a "capstone project." To keep things casual and flexible, I did an energy audit for a friend in Bozeman, Montana.
A big part of the course is learning how to talk with people about electrification and understand their motivations and goals. Do they have high utility bills and want to save money? Are the fired up about climate change and want to reduce their carbon emissions at any cost? Are parts of their house uncomfortable and they want to improve their HVAC system?
In my friend's case, a high priority was improving indoor air quality by switching from a gas range to electric. They have a small child and had been learning about the harms from gas cooking, especially because their range hood just recirculates the air and doesn't exhaust to the outside. They weren't sure what it would take to switch to electric: if they'd have to run new wiring to the stove, upgrade their electric panel etc.
When I showed up for the energy audit, one of the first things we did was pull the old range away from the wall and take a look. It turned out there was a 240-volt plug back there, right next to the gas connection! I'd venture to say this is fairly uncommon, and I'm not sure how to explain it in their case. Maybe the original range was electric when the house was built in the 1980s, and the gas was added later?
In any case, this stroke of luck quickly answered my friend's question. We also looked at the electric panel together and confirmed that their was an active breaker for the range circuit.
Rewiring America has some good information about induction stoves that I passed along to my friend. Induction stoves use about 10% less energy than a traditional electric range, and one other nice benefit is that the cook surface itself doesn't actually heat up, because they work by directly heating the pot with magnetic field. That gives peace of mind with kiddos in the kitchen and also makes the stove surface easier to clean.
In my friend's case there was less reason to consider upgrading to a heat pump HVAC system or water heater right away, so that was less of a focus of my visit. But I did check out the attic and crawlspace to make some recommendations about insulation and air-sealing. As I mentioned in a previous post, doing these kinds of weatherization upgrades are a great step toward upgrading to heat pumps at a later time.
This wasn't the first time I've included electrification consulting in a home energy audit, but it was good practice as I integrate what I've learned from Rewiring America and look forward to helping more people "go electric."
