Everyone is focused on energy efficiency to not only save the environment, but also to save ongoing maintenance costs for home owners and property managers. This can be a super complicated formula. In this article from Energy Vanguard, the case is made for an all electric home.
Maybe you've heard the rumblings coming out of the environmental and building science crowd. Maybe not. But it's getting louder lately. The rumbling I'm alluding to is the move to switch from natural gas to electricity as the energy carrier of choice for buildings.
There are a number of reasons for doing so. Combustion safety is a big one. Your water heater will never kill you with carbon monoxide poisoning in your sleep if it's running on electricity. And your heat pump won't depressurize your house and suck in toxic air from the garage because it has no need for combustion air.
The big picture
But the biggest reason, in my opinion, is related to the big picture. To see it, let's take a look at the most recent energy flows diagram from the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL).
In 2018, the US used 38.2 quadrillion BTUs (Quads) of energy to generate electricity. The three biggest inputs were coal (12.1 Quads), natural gas (11.0 Quads), and nuclear power (8.44 Quads). Coal, the dirtiest fuel we use, accounted for 32% of the fuel used in generating electricity. Solar (0.61 Quads) and wind (2.53 Quads) together account for 8%.
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