1 - The Electrify Everything Course: Start With Why
Welcome to The Electrify Everything Course!
I wrote this course with homeowners in mind and policy wonks in particular. It goes back and forth between ground level and market level thinking. My hope is that it will help you not only electrify your home, but help scale the electrification movement (which likely doesn't look like what you think.)
I’ve structured the course as a series of fairly short emails accompanied by a 15-30 minute video (there is one hour long video.) Almost all the content is new, and it's all free.
You can get the gist from the email, but you are losing important context and may end up frustrated with your home electrification because important details were missed. If you’re bothering to take the course, I highly recommend you watch the videos, it’s likely to save you many hours and thousands of dollars, and is also likely to help the movement scale.
Since you’re an early adopter, you’re going to have more work to do than others who come later. Once there is a contractor network that is good at electrification this task will be far easier. You can help build that network! At the end, I’ll give you tools for that.
This course can also help reduce your risk of having bad or disappointing outcomes. That’s critical because bad results don’t scale. Your friends should be like "holy cow your house is comfy" and not "did you hear about all the problems they're having?"
This course is designed to help you get up to speed so you’re less likely to be swayed by HVAC contractors who think heat pumps are stupid (which is at least half of them.)
Hopefully I don’t have to say this, but no liability is assumed by me or our companies for anything you do because of this course. This course does not replace boots on the ground help, and please follow your local regulations. Stupid lawyers...
At the end if you’d like help you can hire me or one of my team. While the content is free, I made this entirely unpaid, so if you get value from it, please share it with others, feel free to buy me a proverbial beer, buy a copy of The Home Comfort Book, or better still help create an HVAC 2.0 contractor which you'll be able to do at the end of the course.
I made this course free so that you can share it freely. If you find value in it, send the videos or emails to anyone you think might be interested, there are sign up links for the course at the bottom of every video and email.
OK, housekeeping is out of the way, let’s get started!
First, it’s important to start with why you want to electrify, then get some realism on what it might cost.
We’ve seen a number of people choose “less expensive, but just as good options” only to find out neither is true. In general in electrification, it’s worth spending a bit more, but to do that it needs to be worth more. This is the reason to define your “why”, aka the stuff you want to make better in your home, and what it might be worth to accomplish that.
Watch this video, and when you’re done take this quiz to begin thinking about your why and your budget.
YouTube Link
Your homework for today is to take this short quiz. It collects basic information a second time, my apologies as I didn’t know how to do this without a Google Form. By giving your email, you will get a copy of your answers and be able to change them if desired.
When you finish, keep in mind that was the first time you answered those questions, so roll them around in your mind. Decide if problems are annoyances (meaning they aren’t worth anything to fix) or if they are real problems that carry a real budget.
Here’s the quiz: Electrify Everything 4 Questions
In the next two emails, you’ll be getting an understanding of what the different types of HVAC are, because all equipment is not created equal. You’re going to need a bit more budget for the good stuff, so keep thinking on your why as well! These will be coming every 2-4 days to give you time to watch or read the content. See you soon!
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
I wrote this course with homeowners in mind and policy wonks in particular. It goes back and forth between ground level and market level thinking. My hope is that it will help you not only electrify your home, but help scale the electrification movement (which likely doesn't look like what you think.)
I’ve structured the course as a series of fairly short emails accompanied by a 15-30 minute video (there is one hour long video.) Almost all the content is new, and it's all free.
You can get the gist from the email, but you are losing important context and may end up frustrated with your home electrification because important details were missed. If you’re bothering to take the course, I highly recommend you watch the videos, it’s likely to save you many hours and thousands of dollars, and is also likely to help the movement scale.
Since you’re an early adopter, you’re going to have more work to do than others who come later. Once there is a contractor network that is good at electrification this task will be far easier. You can help build that network! At the end, I’ll give you tools for that.
This course can also help reduce your risk of having bad or disappointing outcomes. That’s critical because bad results don’t scale. Your friends should be like "holy cow your house is comfy" and not "did you hear about all the problems they're having?"
This course is designed to help you get up to speed so you’re less likely to be swayed by HVAC contractors who think heat pumps are stupid (which is at least half of them.)
Hopefully I don’t have to say this, but no liability is assumed by me or our companies for anything you do because of this course. This course does not replace boots on the ground help, and please follow your local regulations. Stupid lawyers...
At the end if you’d like help you can hire me or one of my team. While the content is free, I made this entirely unpaid, so if you get value from it, please share it with others, feel free to buy me a proverbial beer, buy a copy of The Home Comfort Book, or better still help create an HVAC 2.0 contractor which you'll be able to do at the end of the course.
I made this course free so that you can share it freely. If you find value in it, send the videos or emails to anyone you think might be interested, there are sign up links for the course at the bottom of every video and email.
OK, housekeeping is out of the way, let’s get started!
First, it’s important to start with why you want to electrify, then get some realism on what it might cost.
We’ve seen a number of people choose “less expensive, but just as good options” only to find out neither is true. In general in electrification, it’s worth spending a bit more, but to do that it needs to be worth more. This is the reason to define your “why”, aka the stuff you want to make better in your home, and what it might be worth to accomplish that.
Watch this video, and when you’re done take this quiz to begin thinking about your why and your budget.
YouTube Link
Your homework for today is to take this short quiz. It collects basic information a second time, my apologies as I didn’t know how to do this without a Google Form. By giving your email, you will get a copy of your answers and be able to change them if desired.
When you finish, keep in mind that was the first time you answered those questions, so roll them around in your mind. Decide if problems are annoyances (meaning they aren’t worth anything to fix) or if they are real problems that carry a real budget.
Here’s the quiz: Electrify Everything 4 Questions
In the next two emails, you’ll be getting an understanding of what the different types of HVAC are, because all equipment is not created equal. You’re going to need a bit more budget for the good stuff, so keep thinking on your why as well! These will be coming every 2-4 days to give you time to watch or read the content. See you soon!
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
2- The Electrify Everything Course: 6 Things Every HVAC System
6 Things Every HVAC System Should Be Able to Do
Before we dig into electrification, it’s important to get your head around what HVAC should be able to do, which I cover in HVAC 101, the second chapter of The Home Comfort Book.
Every HVAC system should be able to do 6 things. Every car can do 5. Most houses can’t do any. The 6 Functions of HVAC are:
These functions help deliver a comfortable and healthy home. Skimp on getting them and there may be annoying problems to solve where the only solution is to replace the entire HVAC system again. (Ask me how I know this…)
Comparing the HVAC in your car to that in your house is one of the simplest ways to wrap your head around what your heating and cooling system should be able to do. I wrote HVAC 101 (the second chapter of The Home Comfort Book) to explain these differences, please watch or read HVAC 101. It's a quick read, 16 pages with lots of pictures, or if you like you can listen to me read it, here are the links:
Read: Direct PDF Download: http://bit.ly/HVAC101File1118
Watch:
YouTube Link
Next time we’ll talk about the 4 main types of residential heat pumps. Be sure to read or watch HVAC 101 first. Talk to you soon!
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link ( http://bit.ly/EEincourse ), or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
Before we dig into electrification, it’s important to get your head around what HVAC should be able to do, which I cover in HVAC 101, the second chapter of The Home Comfort Book.
Every HVAC system should be able to do 6 things. Every car can do 5. Most houses can’t do any. The 6 Functions of HVAC are:
- Load Matching - Put out exactly the right amount of heating or cooling for what the house needs at that moment.
- Filtration - Clean the garbage out of your air. Good filters will reduce COVID, viruses, bacteria, dust, allergens, and all sorts of small particles. We breathe 3000 gallons of air per day, is it worth keeping it clean?
- Dehumidification - Keeping humidity levels under 50% is very important to human health. Above that and risk increases of mold, high chemical pollutant levels, dust mites, and much more.
- Fresh Air - Bringing in outside air helps dilute indoor pollutants, and it’s important as our homes get tighter and tighter. Houses don’t need to breathe, but people do!
- Mixing - Picture a house like a vinaigrette. If some rooms are hotter or colder than others, the simplest way to reduce that is to run the furnace/heat pump fan to mix the house like a vinaigrette. This also distributes fresh air and runs air through the filter. Done right this costs a few bucks a month.
- Humidification - Sometimes the air gets too dry, a humidifier adds moisture. This helps our mucus membranes and reduces dust and virus spread. They are not appropriate for all climates or all clients, which is why it’s listed last.
These functions help deliver a comfortable and healthy home. Skimp on getting them and there may be annoying problems to solve where the only solution is to replace the entire HVAC system again. (Ask me how I know this…)
Comparing the HVAC in your car to that in your house is one of the simplest ways to wrap your head around what your heating and cooling system should be able to do. I wrote HVAC 101 (the second chapter of The Home Comfort Book) to explain these differences, please watch or read HVAC 101. It's a quick read, 16 pages with lots of pictures, or if you like you can listen to me read it, here are the links:
Read: Direct PDF Download: http://bit.ly/HVAC101File1118
Watch:
YouTube Link
Next time we’ll talk about the 4 main types of residential heat pumps. Be sure to read or watch HVAC 101 first. Talk to you soon!
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link ( http://bit.ly/EEincourse ), or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
3- The Electrify Everything Course - The 4 Types of Heat Pumps
The 4 Types of Heat Pumps
By now you should have read or watched HVAC 101 that compares the HVAC system in your car to the one in your house. Now it's time to understand the different types of heat pumps, this video goes over them:
There are 4 main types of heat pumps:
This video walks you through the basics of how heat pumps work and the pros and cons of various types. This is an older video before viable ducted mini splits were available, those are a real option in just the last few years. Inverter models come in half ton sizes where unitary heat pumps only come in full tons. They also have excellent low temperature capabilities. The main struggle with them is that they have a weird shape to where the air goes in and out of them, so they are some extra fabrication work compared to what most installers are used to.
After this we’re done with the intro to HVAC, next up is the most important part of the course, you’ll find out what that is next time. OK, check out the types of heat pumps video!
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
By now you should have read or watched HVAC 101 that compares the HVAC system in your car to the one in your house. Now it's time to understand the different types of heat pumps, this video goes over them:
There are 4 main types of heat pumps:
- Unitary ducted air source heat pumps - these are a direct replacement for furnaces and take heat from the cold air outside in winter to heat your house. (Sounds strange but your fridge does that, right?) The indoor units look much like a furnace - a metal box in your basement - but they don’t have a furnace in them. The outdoor unit looks just like a traditional air conditioner, but they are on legs to keep them out of the snow. They are quite common in the southeast and northwest US.
- Ground source (aka geothermal) heat pumps - These have loops of pipes that run under your yard or in a lake where they can take heat from the earth, or add heat in summer.
- Ductless mini split heat pumps - these look like a smaller version of the HVAC units in hotel rooms, they are typically wall mounted units, but there are also ceiling mounted ones. They do not excel at air quality tasks, namely filtration, fresh air, mixing, and humidification. Many are poor at dehumidification as well.
- Ducted mini split heat pumps - These have the same outdoor unit as ductless mini splits, but they have an air handler as well (an air handler is the box with the fan in it that blows air through your ducts.) There are two varieties of these. First, there very small air handlers that can only handle a few ducts. Recently this type has moved to where it can handle more static pressure and is a more useful tool. Second, the standard size ducted mini split heat pumps look like a furnace or a unitary heat pump inside, but have a mini split outdoor unit with the fan blowing sideways. Ducted mini splits come in smaller outputs than unitary so they can be nice for small homes or zones with low heating and cooling loads.
This video walks you through the basics of how heat pumps work and the pros and cons of various types. This is an older video before viable ducted mini splits were available, those are a real option in just the last few years. Inverter models come in half ton sizes where unitary heat pumps only come in full tons. They also have excellent low temperature capabilities. The main struggle with them is that they have a weird shape to where the air goes in and out of them, so they are some extra fabrication work compared to what most installers are used to.
After this we’re done with the intro to HVAC, next up is the most important part of the course, you’ll find out what that is next time. OK, check out the types of heat pumps video!
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
4 - The Electrify Everything Course - Scaling Electrification
This is the most important part of The Electrify Everything Course.
If you only watch one video, make this the one, the future of electrification may depend on it.
YouTube Link
If you are taking this course, you’re probably an early adopter. You’re willing to put up with more than mainstream market clients are. You’ll likely struggle to find a contractor and get them to do what you want. You’re likely to pay a bit more than others in a few years once the market begins to mature.
If you’re not willing to struggle, take it from me that you should stop pursuing electrification and wait a few years for the market to mature. Keep in mind though that if early adopters don't step up, it could be 10 years before electrification is common, not 5. That is likely to push the 100% electrification date to 2060 or 2070. Hitting 2050 is tough, as I talk about in this video.
OK, with that out of the way, if you are still here you also are very likely to want to see residential electrification take off.
There’s a major problem with being an early adopter talking to a mainstream buyer though: they are repulsed by early adopter arguments. If you talk early adopter language to them, you’re very likely to drive them away. If they happen to replace their HVAC in the next few years, that opportunity will be lost until about 2040. It’s far better to speak their language.
In this video I talk about this conundrum and what to do about it. To repeat, if you only watch one video in this series, make it this one.
Next up, we’ll talk about how to figure out what size electric panel you need.
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link ( http://bit.ly/EEincourse ), or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
If you only watch one video, make this the one, the future of electrification may depend on it.
YouTube Link
If you are taking this course, you’re probably an early adopter. You’re willing to put up with more than mainstream market clients are. You’ll likely struggle to find a contractor and get them to do what you want. You’re likely to pay a bit more than others in a few years once the market begins to mature.
If you’re not willing to struggle, take it from me that you should stop pursuing electrification and wait a few years for the market to mature. Keep in mind though that if early adopters don't step up, it could be 10 years before electrification is common, not 5. That is likely to push the 100% electrification date to 2060 or 2070. Hitting 2050 is tough, as I talk about in this video.
OK, with that out of the way, if you are still here you also are very likely to want to see residential electrification take off.
There’s a major problem with being an early adopter talking to a mainstream buyer though: they are repulsed by early adopter arguments. If you talk early adopter language to them, you’re very likely to drive them away. If they happen to replace their HVAC in the next few years, that opportunity will be lost until about 2040. It’s far better to speak their language.
In this video I talk about this conundrum and what to do about it. To repeat, if you only watch one video in this series, make it this one.
Next up, we’ll talk about how to figure out what size electric panel you need.
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link ( http://bit.ly/EEincourse ), or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
5 - The Electrify Everything Course - What Size Panel Do I Need?
What Size Electric Panel Do I Need?
One of the biggest questions I get asked is whether a 100 amp panel is enough to do an electrification.
The answer surprises most: a strong maybe. Here's a shortcut method to figure that out:
If 100 amps won’t do it, 200 amps will handle one HVAC system, the rest of your house, and 2 EVs no problem as long as you don’t have too many crazy loads like a welder or multiple hot tubs.
This video goes over my quick and dirty heuristic method, which will help you understand how much power different appliances pull and how much a 100 or 200 amp panel can handle. Feedback has been really positive on this one, it will likely help you wrap your head around a subject that can easily seem foreign.
To share: http://bit.ly/WhatSizePanel
There’s a proper way to do this calculation, which my friend Jon Harrod of Snug Planet wrote about.
You’ll note I recommend the Emporia Vue energy monitor at the end so you can both decide on your panel upgrade with data and see how much different appliances run once you electrify. They are $110 for one with 8 circuit monitors and $150 for one with 16 circuit monitors. If you use this link you’ll get 5% off and I get a 5% commission. https://bit.ly/EmporiaNtHW
Next up, we'll talk about every appliance BUT HVAC!
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
One of the biggest questions I get asked is whether a 100 amp panel is enough to do an electrification.
The answer surprises most: a strong maybe. Here's a shortcut method to figure that out:
If 100 amps won’t do it, 200 amps will handle one HVAC system, the rest of your house, and 2 EVs no problem as long as you don’t have too many crazy loads like a welder or multiple hot tubs.
This video goes over my quick and dirty heuristic method, which will help you understand how much power different appliances pull and how much a 100 or 200 amp panel can handle. Feedback has been really positive on this one, it will likely help you wrap your head around a subject that can easily seem foreign.
To share: http://bit.ly/WhatSizePanel
There’s a proper way to do this calculation, which my friend Jon Harrod of Snug Planet wrote about.
You’ll note I recommend the Emporia Vue energy monitor at the end so you can both decide on your panel upgrade with data and see how much different appliances run once you electrify. They are $110 for one with 8 circuit monitors and $150 for one with 16 circuit monitors. If you use this link you’ll get 5% off and I get a 5% commission. https://bit.ly/EmporiaNtHW
Next up, we'll talk about every appliance BUT HVAC!
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
6 - The Electrify Everything Course - Everything BUT HVAC!
Electrify Everything BUT HVAC!
Before we dig back into the nitty gritty of home HVAC, which is by far the hardest part of home electrification, let’s look at all the other common appliances that often run on fossil fuels:
Here are the options and our recommendations:
YouTube Link
All of these appliances are relatively easy because they are self contained systems. You can change them out at any time without affecting other parts of the house. They are like changing clothes where changing HVAC is closer to an organ transplant - changing one system in a system of systems (aka your house.)
Here’s the short, short version of what we recommend.
You’ll have to watch the video for more, there are lots of important details in there. Again, try 1.25X or 1.5X speed.
To share: http://bit.ly/eeEVbutHVAC
Next up, we talk about reducing risk by sizing HVAC correctly.
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
Before we dig back into the nitty gritty of home HVAC, which is by far the hardest part of home electrification, let’s look at all the other common appliances that often run on fossil fuels:
- Cars
- Stoves
- Water heaters
- Dryers
- Fireplaces
Here are the options and our recommendations:
YouTube Link
All of these appliances are relatively easy because they are self contained systems. You can change them out at any time without affecting other parts of the house. They are like changing clothes where changing HVAC is closer to an organ transplant - changing one system in a system of systems (aka your house.)
Here’s the short, short version of what we recommend.
- Cars - 100 amp subpanel in garage to charge 2-3 cars
- Stoves - induction
- Water heaters - heat pump water heater
- Dryers - plain old resistance for most people, use the budget elsewhere
- Fireplaces - OptiMyst - looks like fire but you can run all year
You’ll have to watch the video for more, there are lots of important details in there. Again, try 1.25X or 1.5X speed.
To share: http://bit.ly/eeEVbutHVAC
Next up, we talk about reducing risk by sizing HVAC correctly.
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
8 - The Electrify Everything Course - Resistance is NOT Futile
Don’t fear resistance heat! Do the math.
Just like everything in construction, backup heat has a ton of names so we can all be confused as we use different words to talk about the same thing. Here are a few: electric resistance, emergency heat, “the toaster”, backup heat, or heat strips.
You may be told to fear resistance backup. Don’t. Done right, a house won’t use a great deal of resistance heat, perhaps $50-200/year. Resistance backup allows more aggressive HVAC sizing which leads to better comfort the vast majority of the year. Resistance is NOT futile, it’s a key tool.
YouTube Link
Resistance backup heat is just like the glowing element inside your toaster, but bigger. Most toasters pull 700-1000 watts, resistance backup heat strips pull between 5,000 and 20,000 watts (5-20 kilowatts or KW). They serve two functions:
Systems with resistance backup are our strong preference in HVAC 2.0, especially in cold and/or humid climates.
But...
There is a big exception to using resistance backup. In leaky homes it can lead to very high winter bills, I’ve seen and heard of $1000+/month bills in cold climates. This is where fear is justified, as we discussed in the Scaling Electrification video, bad experiences will prevent scale. That is what to be afraid of.
It’s pretty easy to de-risk though as we discussed earlier - have a blower door test done, then a load calculation done based on blower door and energy usage. Or, get a thermostat that does run time tracking and see how much it runs on a very hot or cold day. All Ecobee thermostats do this.
If your house is too leaky to be able to do a straight heat pump, you have three options:
If you and your contractor do a little homework, resistance electric is nothing to be afraid of. Be sure they run a load calculation trued to both blower door and energy use, then you’ll know what size equipment to use to be able to largely or entirely avoid backup heat.
That’s the short version, but there’s a lot more to it, more here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz6w-Xd4ccE
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
Just like everything in construction, backup heat has a ton of names so we can all be confused as we use different words to talk about the same thing. Here are a few: electric resistance, emergency heat, “the toaster”, backup heat, or heat strips.
You may be told to fear resistance backup. Don’t. Done right, a house won’t use a great deal of resistance heat, perhaps $50-200/year. Resistance backup allows more aggressive HVAC sizing which leads to better comfort the vast majority of the year. Resistance is NOT futile, it’s a key tool.
YouTube Link
Resistance backup heat is just like the glowing element inside your toaster, but bigger. Most toasters pull 700-1000 watts, resistance backup heat strips pull between 5,000 and 20,000 watts (5-20 kilowatts or KW). They serve two functions:
- Backup - Help out the heat pump on very cold days to keep the house warm. Or, if the heat pump compressor fails, you still have a heat source.
- Dehumidification - By running the air conditioner and then the backup heat, you can get dry room temperature air rather than cold, dry air. This is important in shoulder seasons when you don’t need cooling, but dehumidification is important to help prevent odors and mold. This often uses less energy than you might think. Unfortunately, only a few products have this very important capability.
Systems with resistance backup are our strong preference in HVAC 2.0, especially in cold and/or humid climates.
But...
There is a big exception to using resistance backup. In leaky homes it can lead to very high winter bills, I’ve seen and heard of $1000+/month bills in cold climates. This is where fear is justified, as we discussed in the Scaling Electrification video, bad experiences will prevent scale. That is what to be afraid of.
It’s pretty easy to de-risk though as we discussed earlier - have a blower door test done, then a load calculation done based on blower door and energy usage. Or, get a thermostat that does run time tracking and see how much it runs on a very hot or cold day. All Ecobee thermostats do this.
If your house is too leaky to be able to do a straight heat pump, you have three options:
- Hybrid HVAC: install a furnace and a heat pump, recognizing that while this can reduce gas usage 50-90%, it is kicking the can down the road 15-20 years on removing gas infrastructure.
- Performance Retrofit: Plan and execute an air sealing and insulation upgrade. The bad news here is that you are unlikely to get anything back at resale, so you are burning $10-40K of your hard earned money and pushing your retirement date back. Until efficiency is valued at resale this will be the case. If you need HVAC now, size it to where the house is going, not where it is today. We’ll dive deeper into insulation and air sealing in the next email.
- Move: Sell the house and find another one that is easier to electrify. This may seem like a horrible option, but the odds are better heat pump technology is coming, which means your current house will likely be easier to retrofit in 5-10 years even if you don’t own it anymore.
If you and your contractor do a little homework, resistance electric is nothing to be afraid of. Be sure they run a load calculation trued to both blower door and energy use, then you’ll know what size equipment to use to be able to largely or entirely avoid backup heat.
That’s the short version, but there’s a lot more to it, more here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz6w-Xd4ccE
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
9 - The Electrify Everything Course - Critical HVAC Details - Static Pressure & Surge Protection
Critical HVAC Details: Static Pressure
Static pressure is an obscure but extremely important thing to understand. Static pressure is like the pressure inside a balloon, only inside your duct system. Ignore this and your system could fail in as little as 1-2 years, yet few HVAC contractors test for it.
YouTube Link
External Static Pressure Basics
caption for imageStatic pressure is the blood pressure of your HVAC system.
caption for image
Basically you want enough pressure in the duct work so the air will flow (velocity pressure), like letting go of the end of a balloon, but not so much that the fan has to work super hard to move air (or in the balloon analogy, not so much pressure the balloon would pop.)
If the fan works too hard it will die early, sometimes in 5-10 years, sometimes in 1-2. These fan motors are routinely $1000+ to change. There’s even a meme for it:
caption for image
There’s a sweet spot for static pressure, or more correctly, external static pressure. The sweet spot is between 0.08-0.5” water column.
Why water column? Because we’re Americans and we use silly metrics we stole from the British!
Seriously, you want the readings to be in the 0.08 - 0.5” range if at all possible.
Most systems we’ve tested are between 0.8” and 1.5” WC. That’s way too high. Older PSC motors could take it, but newer and much more efficient ECM motors tend to die quickly under those pressures. Since July of 2019 all new furnaces have ECM motors, and we are already hearing about motor failures after only two winter seasons.
The good news is that testing it is fast and pretty easy, it takes about 15 minutes for a basic test (heat or AC on, with and without the filter).
Reducing static pressure is often fairly easy too at replacement - make the ducts going into the system much larger. This is called a “near equipment fix” and is part of Nearly Perfect HVAC aka BAD ASS HVAC.
If you downsize the system, which reduced how much airflow is needed, and do those near equipment fixes, most systems come in between 0.2 - 0.5” static pressure, right in the sweet spot.
Inverter heat pumps are also very sensitive to power fluctuations, so we highly recommend adding surge protection, which is discussed at the end of the video.
Watch the video for much more detail, this is info you literally won’t get anywhere else as a consumer, this isn’t common knowledge even amongst most HVAC contractors. Paying attention to these details can save you thousands of dollars in repair costs over the life of your HVAC system.
To share: http://bit.ly/EEStaticPressure
Next up, BAD ASS HVAC that puts all the stuff we’ve discussed in one (fairly) simple system!
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
Static pressure is an obscure but extremely important thing to understand. Static pressure is like the pressure inside a balloon, only inside your duct system. Ignore this and your system could fail in as little as 1-2 years, yet few HVAC contractors test for it.
YouTube Link
External Static Pressure Basics
caption for imageStatic pressure is the blood pressure of your HVAC system.
caption for image
Basically you want enough pressure in the duct work so the air will flow (velocity pressure), like letting go of the end of a balloon, but not so much that the fan has to work super hard to move air (or in the balloon analogy, not so much pressure the balloon would pop.)
If the fan works too hard it will die early, sometimes in 5-10 years, sometimes in 1-2. These fan motors are routinely $1000+ to change. There’s even a meme for it:
caption for image
There’s a sweet spot for static pressure, or more correctly, external static pressure. The sweet spot is between 0.08-0.5” water column.
Why water column? Because we’re Americans and we use silly metrics we stole from the British!
Seriously, you want the readings to be in the 0.08 - 0.5” range if at all possible.
Most systems we’ve tested are between 0.8” and 1.5” WC. That’s way too high. Older PSC motors could take it, but newer and much more efficient ECM motors tend to die quickly under those pressures. Since July of 2019 all new furnaces have ECM motors, and we are already hearing about motor failures after only two winter seasons.
The good news is that testing it is fast and pretty easy, it takes about 15 minutes for a basic test (heat or AC on, with and without the filter).
Reducing static pressure is often fairly easy too at replacement - make the ducts going into the system much larger. This is called a “near equipment fix” and is part of Nearly Perfect HVAC aka BAD ASS HVAC.
If you downsize the system, which reduced how much airflow is needed, and do those near equipment fixes, most systems come in between 0.2 - 0.5” static pressure, right in the sweet spot.
Inverter heat pumps are also very sensitive to power fluctuations, so we highly recommend adding surge protection, which is discussed at the end of the video.
Watch the video for much more detail, this is info you literally won’t get anywhere else as a consumer, this isn’t common knowledge even amongst most HVAC contractors. Paying attention to these details can save you thousands of dollars in repair costs over the life of your HVAC system.
To share: http://bit.ly/EEStaticPressure
Next up, BAD ASS HVAC that puts all the stuff we’ve discussed in one (fairly) simple system!
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
10 - The Electrify Everything Course - BAD ASS HVAC
BAD ASS HVAC aka Nearly Perfect HVAC
In HVAC 101 you learned about the Six Functions of HVAC. It’s time to look at what they look like in the field.
We’ve developed a system that we cheekily named BAD ASS HVAC (Big Air Drop, Air Source System) that delivers all 6 functions in one fairly simple install using one piece of equipment - an air source heat pump. The G rated name is Nearly Perfect HVAC.
I did a webinar on BAD ASS HVAC for the Green Home Institute, today's video is that webinar, the presentation starts at 4:00. I originally wrote the presentation for HVAC contractors, but delivered it this time with energy auditors in mind who are often near homeowner level in HVAC knowledge, so you should be able to hang in there. I wrote an 8 part blog series on it if you want to read rather than watch.
This is one of the longest videos in the series, you might consider watching it at 1.25-1.5X speed. It's very, very important to understand the concepts so you understand the value of these features and so that HVAC contractors have a hard time talking you out of them. This system has been looked over and approved by a number of my air quality researcher friends, and we've verified that it works well with Indoor Air Quality monitors.
Enjoy!
YouTube Link
BAD ASS HVAC looks like this:
caption for image
BAD ASS HVAC tackles the 6 functions of HVAC in this way:
Right Sized, Variable Speed HVAC is BAD ASS
You’re going to get tired of how often right sized, variable speed HVAC with decently installed duct work at the equipment is the
answer to darn near everything. Hopefully tired enough to spend the money to get it. It’s magical.
Variable speed HVAC spends the majority of its life on low stage. That means it puts out exactly as much heating or cooling as the house needs at any moment. This keeps all the materials in your house close to the right temperature which feels like “invisible radiators” as one client put it.
It also means that the fan isn’t running all that hard, so static pressure and energy use is lower.
Right sized, variable speed equipment really is amazing. Combined with low static pressure you can bring in a little fresh air to dilute contaminants, filter the air in the house to take out pollutants, and mix the air in the house up to blunt temperature differences between rooms. This gets done for $2-10/month.
If you have reheat dehumidification in your system, it may eliminate needing to buy a separate whole home dehumidifier for thousands of dollars. This is very important in humid climates.
Combine all those things and you get Nearly Perfect HVAC aka BAD ASS HVAC.
While there are single and two stage units out there, we highly encourage going with an inverter driven variable speed unit, there are a number of lower cost 5 stage systems out there, some in a similar cost range to 2 stage systems. Or better yet, step up to top of the line, especially in cold climates.
Here is the video link to share: https://bit.ly/BADASShvacGHI
And here are the slides: https://bit.ly/BADASSslides
Next up we’ll talk about insulation and air sealing, which are the biggest pieces in determining what size HVAC you need.
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
In HVAC 101 you learned about the Six Functions of HVAC. It’s time to look at what they look like in the field.
We’ve developed a system that we cheekily named BAD ASS HVAC (Big Air Drop, Air Source System) that delivers all 6 functions in one fairly simple install using one piece of equipment - an air source heat pump. The G rated name is Nearly Perfect HVAC.
I did a webinar on BAD ASS HVAC for the Green Home Institute, today's video is that webinar, the presentation starts at 4:00. I originally wrote the presentation for HVAC contractors, but delivered it this time with energy auditors in mind who are often near homeowner level in HVAC knowledge, so you should be able to hang in there. I wrote an 8 part blog series on it if you want to read rather than watch.
This is one of the longest videos in the series, you might consider watching it at 1.25-1.5X speed. It's very, very important to understand the concepts so you understand the value of these features and so that HVAC contractors have a hard time talking you out of them. This system has been looked over and approved by a number of my air quality researcher friends, and we've verified that it works well with Indoor Air Quality monitors.
Enjoy!
YouTube Link
BAD ASS HVAC looks like this:
caption for image
BAD ASS HVAC tackles the 6 functions of HVAC in this way:
- Load matching - Right sized, variable speed, inverter driven heat pump that turns down to 40% or less of full capacity. These provide excellent comfort.
- Filtration - largest and thickest reasonable media filter (minimum 20”x25”x4” thick and MERV 13.) This filters out lots of bad stuff in the air like wildfire smoke, viral particles, allergens, exhaust particles from vehicles outdoors, and much more.
- Dehumidification - reheat dehumidification is the best option. It can provide dehumidification through shoulder seasons which typically have the worst air quality in humid climates thanks to poor humidity control. (Start at 27:03 in the video below.)
- Fresh Air - A duct to outdoors that pulls outside air in whenever the air handler fan is running (which should be 24/7 if a system is done right.) We like to close them at very high or low temperatures.
- Mixing - By using a large filter and sizing the return duct work to be the same size as that filter, air handler fans use very little energy, typically $2-5/month. For that small amount of money you mix the air in the house like a vinaigrette, evening out temperature differences, filter the air, and bring in outside air.
- Humidification - A whole home humidifier can be a good option for reducing dry skin and the spread of viruses, but it needs to reduce its output at very cold temperatures which requires a smart thermostat.
Right Sized, Variable Speed HVAC is BAD ASS
You’re going to get tired of how often right sized, variable speed HVAC with decently installed duct work at the equipment is the
answer to darn near everything. Hopefully tired enough to spend the money to get it. It’s magical.
Variable speed HVAC spends the majority of its life on low stage. That means it puts out exactly as much heating or cooling as the house needs at any moment. This keeps all the materials in your house close to the right temperature which feels like “invisible radiators” as one client put it.
It also means that the fan isn’t running all that hard, so static pressure and energy use is lower.
Right sized, variable speed equipment really is amazing. Combined with low static pressure you can bring in a little fresh air to dilute contaminants, filter the air in the house to take out pollutants, and mix the air in the house up to blunt temperature differences between rooms. This gets done for $2-10/month.
If you have reheat dehumidification in your system, it may eliminate needing to buy a separate whole home dehumidifier for thousands of dollars. This is very important in humid climates.
Combine all those things and you get Nearly Perfect HVAC aka BAD ASS HVAC.
While there are single and two stage units out there, we highly encourage going with an inverter driven variable speed unit, there are a number of lower cost 5 stage systems out there, some in a similar cost range to 2 stage systems. Or better yet, step up to top of the line, especially in cold climates.
Here is the video link to share: https://bit.ly/BADASShvacGHI
And here are the slides: https://bit.ly/BADASSslides
Next up we’ll talk about insulation and air sealing, which are the biggest pieces in determining what size HVAC you need.
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
11 - The Electrify Everything Course - Insulation and Air Sealing
Insulation and Air Sealing aka Building Shell
When you’re looking to electrify, it's best to get heating load under 36,000 BTUs typically. As discussed earlier, that’s about all the duct work most houses have, and heat loads over that start to get expensive on energy bills, especially in cold climates.
How much it takes to heat and cool your home is determined by three main factors:
As we’ve talked about before, sizing your HVAC as small as possible with multiple stage equipment is magical for both comfort and air quality.
To do that you need to understand how much it takes to heat or cool your house which requires looking at energy use and doing a blower door test for air tightness.
Here's what a blower door looks like, this is me in our old house, I'd lost a bet with my marketing professor:
caption for imageThe blower door is a big fan that goes into an exterior door of your house. It can be used to suck air out or blow air into your house, for testing purposes it almost always is in "suck" or depressurization mode.
The unit for a blower door is cfm50 or cubic feet per minute at 50 Pascals. 50 Pascals is roughly like a 10-15 mile per hour wind against all sides of your house at the same time. It helps make invisible air leaks visible.
The blower door is the most important tool in "building science" aka the physics of how your house works.
In Building Science the only answer that is always correct is "it depends", but we have found one rule of thumb for air tightness: a 1:1 ratio of leakage to square footage:
LAIR = Leakage to Area Infiltration Ratio - Is your LAIR good or evil?
We find that homes with a 1:1 ratio, which would be 2000 cfm50 (the blower door unit) in a 2000 square foot house, means that a home is often controllable with HVAC alone.
There are exceptions, like if one room is particularly leaky, which can also be tested for during a blower door test, or if the home is very large or on a slab, both of which often require lower ratios in the 0.7 cfm50 to 1 square foot range to work well.
Like we discussed back in the HVAC Sizing and Risk module, without your blower door and energy use, load calcs are +/- a mind boggling 70%, which makes calculations, well, dumb. They are guesses, and frankly not even educated guesses.
A blower door test and load calculation are included in an HVAC 2.0 Comfort Consult, or if you get a blower door test I can run a load calculation for you with a remote consult. Boots on the ground are better though.
To really get your head around all this, it’s important to take several big steps back and understand the physics of how your house works, which is known as “building science.” For years I was frustrated that all the building science stuff I read was 301 or 401 level stuff, you had to have a huge amount of knowledge to even be able to understand the information.
To solve this, I wrote The Home Comfort Book which assumes you are intelligent, but know nothing about building science. The first chapter of it is called Comfort 101 and it walks you through the basics to a point that you can read the 301 and 401 stuff and get something useful out of it.
If you want to reduce the risk of being swayed by contractors that really don’t understand this, you need to put on The Armor of Building Science. This chapter will help you do that. It’s fairly lengthy at 68 pages, but think of it like a fun and short book on physics, plus it has a lot of pretty pictures.
There are 3 options for consuming this content:
Next up is the last piece of the course: how to find a contractor.
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
When you’re looking to electrify, it's best to get heating load under 36,000 BTUs typically. As discussed earlier, that’s about all the duct work most houses have, and heat loads over that start to get expensive on energy bills, especially in cold climates.
How much it takes to heat and cool your home is determined by three main factors:
- Climate - The colder it is where you live, the trickier it may be to electrify.
- Insulation Levels - This is really only important up to R-10 or R-20, then air leakage takes over as the key factor. (Yes, this is surprising.)
- Air Tightness - If your house is leaky, it’s like a leaky boat - you are constantly having to pump the heat or cold that’s leaking into your house back out.
As we’ve talked about before, sizing your HVAC as small as possible with multiple stage equipment is magical for both comfort and air quality.
To do that you need to understand how much it takes to heat or cool your house which requires looking at energy use and doing a blower door test for air tightness.
Here's what a blower door looks like, this is me in our old house, I'd lost a bet with my marketing professor:
caption for imageThe blower door is a big fan that goes into an exterior door of your house. It can be used to suck air out or blow air into your house, for testing purposes it almost always is in "suck" or depressurization mode.
The unit for a blower door is cfm50 or cubic feet per minute at 50 Pascals. 50 Pascals is roughly like a 10-15 mile per hour wind against all sides of your house at the same time. It helps make invisible air leaks visible.
The blower door is the most important tool in "building science" aka the physics of how your house works.
In Building Science the only answer that is always correct is "it depends", but we have found one rule of thumb for air tightness: a 1:1 ratio of leakage to square footage:
LAIR = Leakage to Area Infiltration Ratio - Is your LAIR good or evil?
We find that homes with a 1:1 ratio, which would be 2000 cfm50 (the blower door unit) in a 2000 square foot house, means that a home is often controllable with HVAC alone.
There are exceptions, like if one room is particularly leaky, which can also be tested for during a blower door test, or if the home is very large or on a slab, both of which often require lower ratios in the 0.7 cfm50 to 1 square foot range to work well.
Like we discussed back in the HVAC Sizing and Risk module, without your blower door and energy use, load calcs are +/- a mind boggling 70%, which makes calculations, well, dumb. They are guesses, and frankly not even educated guesses.
A blower door test and load calculation are included in an HVAC 2.0 Comfort Consult, or if you get a blower door test I can run a load calculation for you with a remote consult. Boots on the ground are better though.
To really get your head around all this, it’s important to take several big steps back and understand the physics of how your house works, which is known as “building science.” For years I was frustrated that all the building science stuff I read was 301 or 401 level stuff, you had to have a huge amount of knowledge to even be able to understand the information.
To solve this, I wrote The Home Comfort Book which assumes you are intelligent, but know nothing about building science. The first chapter of it is called Comfort 101 and it walks you through the basics to a point that you can read the 301 and 401 stuff and get something useful out of it.
If you want to reduce the risk of being swayed by contractors that really don’t understand this, you need to put on The Armor of Building Science. This chapter will help you do that. It’s fairly lengthy at 68 pages, but think of it like a fun and short book on physics, plus it has a lot of pretty pictures.
There are 3 options for consuming this content:
- Read: direct download: http://bit.ly/HomeComfort101File1118
- Watch: http://bit.ly/Comfort101Pt1
- Listen: http://bit.ly/HC101Pt1Tersh
Next up is the last piece of the course: how to find a contractor.
PS Want to help spread the electrification word? Forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
12 - The Electrify Everything Course - Finding a Contractor (Last One!)
Finding an HVAC Contractor
Finding an HVAC contractor is perhaps the hardest part of electrification. This is the last video in the Electrify Everything Course, it is the second most important video in the series because this is how the work actually gets done. Enough preamble, get to watching! =)
YouTube Link
Finding an HVAC Contractor
Few HVAC contractors in gas heavy markets are open to electrification, you’ll get all sorts of weird pushback.
The best option by far is to find or create an HVAC 2.0 contractor. The system is built to right size HVAC, which means it leans towards heat pumps, since heat pumps are usually smaller than furnaces. It also includes a path to insulation and air sealing upgrades if needed. You can also help create an HVAC 2.0 contractor.
Before we discuss that though, there’s a really important topic to cover: equal-equal relationships.
If you want to get an excellent electrification, find a contractor and truly make them a partner. There should be a very high trust level between both of you. Part of this is done by paying for their expertise (which the HVAC 2.0 system builds in), and part of this is done with mindset - this is not a master/servant relationship, it is an equal/equal relationship.
Simple things like telling them which bathroom they are welcome to use, buying lunch, and having drinks and snacks handy work wonders on both attitudes and results.
Being open about your goals and budget is another key, they should be acting as consultants not salespeople, so both parties need to put all their cards on the table. Again, HVAC 2.0 facilitates this.
At no point should either of you feel coerced to continue. Each step should be discrete. Do the work, get paid, decide if the next step should be taken. This is what The Church of the Kitchen Table looks like when you are one of the people at the table.
There’s a lot to the dance between contractors and homeowners, the video talks about how to dance in a way that both parties enjoy it.
Where’s the beef? How do I find a contractor?!
Here is the HVAC 2.0 contractor map. You’ll note it’s sparse still. If you’re lucky enough to have someone near you, take advantage of that fact! If not you can take your chances working through an electrification project with someone you find, or you can create your own HVAC 2.0 contractor.
To do that we’ve built this interview form. Yes, it’s some work to do. Which is why you want to seriously consider why I started by asking you why you are electrifying and how much it’s worth.
Using the HVAC 2.0 process will likely save you many hours of frustration and thousands of dollars in the job (because you won’t pay for fear being priced in.) It will also drastically increase the odds of success that your project will be a beacon on the hill to show other people rather than a study in mediocrity.
That may sound harsh, but every time I’ve just referred someone without knowing how they do the work, it has worked out either poorly or just ok. I’m not ok with that, which is a big part of why we built the HVAC 2.0 system.
If you truly want to see electrification scale though, helping grow the HVAC 2.0 army is probably the most important contribution you can make. If you have enjoyed this course and learned from it, doing some work to bring a contractor into HVAC 2.0 is by far the best way you can give back the value you received.
I should mention though, if all this sounds too hard, it may be easier to wait 5 years and be part of the mainstream market. Don't feel bad about it, that just means you are a mainstream client, and that's ok! As I get older I have less and less patience for the struggles of being an early adopter, so I get it.
If you really want to electrify though, use the contractor interview form and make some calls. You'll feel awkward, that's ok. What you've learned in this course should help you feel better speaking the lingo, in many ways you know more about electrification than a huge swath of HVAC contractors! Remember to build that equal-equal relationship though!
Thank you for taking The Electrify Everything Course, I hope you found it useful and enlightening! Now go forth and Electrify!
Find an HVAC 2.0 Contractor
PS As I've ended every time before, if you want to help spread the electrification word, forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
Finding an HVAC contractor is perhaps the hardest part of electrification. This is the last video in the Electrify Everything Course, it is the second most important video in the series because this is how the work actually gets done. Enough preamble, get to watching! =)
YouTube Link
Finding an HVAC Contractor
Few HVAC contractors in gas heavy markets are open to electrification, you’ll get all sorts of weird pushback.
The best option by far is to find or create an HVAC 2.0 contractor. The system is built to right size HVAC, which means it leans towards heat pumps, since heat pumps are usually smaller than furnaces. It also includes a path to insulation and air sealing upgrades if needed. You can also help create an HVAC 2.0 contractor.
Before we discuss that though, there’s a really important topic to cover: equal-equal relationships.
If you want to get an excellent electrification, find a contractor and truly make them a partner. There should be a very high trust level between both of you. Part of this is done by paying for their expertise (which the HVAC 2.0 system builds in), and part of this is done with mindset - this is not a master/servant relationship, it is an equal/equal relationship.
Simple things like telling them which bathroom they are welcome to use, buying lunch, and having drinks and snacks handy work wonders on both attitudes and results.
Being open about your goals and budget is another key, they should be acting as consultants not salespeople, so both parties need to put all their cards on the table. Again, HVAC 2.0 facilitates this.
At no point should either of you feel coerced to continue. Each step should be discrete. Do the work, get paid, decide if the next step should be taken. This is what The Church of the Kitchen Table looks like when you are one of the people at the table.
There’s a lot to the dance between contractors and homeowners, the video talks about how to dance in a way that both parties enjoy it.
Where’s the beef? How do I find a contractor?!
Here is the HVAC 2.0 contractor map. You’ll note it’s sparse still. If you’re lucky enough to have someone near you, take advantage of that fact! If not you can take your chances working through an electrification project with someone you find, or you can create your own HVAC 2.0 contractor.
To do that we’ve built this interview form. Yes, it’s some work to do. Which is why you want to seriously consider why I started by asking you why you are electrifying and how much it’s worth.
Using the HVAC 2.0 process will likely save you many hours of frustration and thousands of dollars in the job (because you won’t pay for fear being priced in.) It will also drastically increase the odds of success that your project will be a beacon on the hill to show other people rather than a study in mediocrity.
That may sound harsh, but every time I’ve just referred someone without knowing how they do the work, it has worked out either poorly or just ok. I’m not ok with that, which is a big part of why we built the HVAC 2.0 system.
If you truly want to see electrification scale though, helping grow the HVAC 2.0 army is probably the most important contribution you can make. If you have enjoyed this course and learned from it, doing some work to bring a contractor into HVAC 2.0 is by far the best way you can give back the value you received.
I should mention though, if all this sounds too hard, it may be easier to wait 5 years and be part of the mainstream market. Don't feel bad about it, that just means you are a mainstream client, and that's ok! As I get older I have less and less patience for the struggles of being an early adopter, so I get it.
If you really want to electrify though, use the contractor interview form and make some calls. You'll feel awkward, that's ok. What you've learned in this course should help you feel better speaking the lingo, in many ways you know more about electrification than a huge swath of HVAC contractors! Remember to build that equal-equal relationship though!
Thank you for taking The Electrify Everything Course, I hope you found it useful and enlightening! Now go forth and Electrify!
Find an HVAC 2.0 Contractor
PS As I've ended every time before, if you want to help spread the electrification word, forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
PS - The Electrify Everything Facebook Group
Thanks again for taking the Electrify Everything Course!
One last thing to be aware of, we've created a Facebook group that purposely mixes forward thinking HVAC contractors (many of them are HVAC 2.0 subscriber contractors) and homeowners who would like to electrify.
If you're on Facebook, join us, it's a great place to ask questions and have discussions.
There's an important rule though - the group is purposely politically purple, so we avoid the subjects of climate change, policy, and politics in general - it's meant to be a place to discuss the nuts and bolts of electrification, not to get into arguments.
If you are ok with those ground rules, I'd like to invite you to join the group:
Join the Electrify Everything Facebook Group
If you're looking for an HVAC 2.0 contractor or would like to help create one, click here:
Find an HVAC 2.0 Contractor
Thanks again for taking the course!
PS As I've ended every time before, if you want to help spread the electrification word, forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
One last thing to be aware of, we've created a Facebook group that purposely mixes forward thinking HVAC contractors (many of them are HVAC 2.0 subscriber contractors) and homeowners who would like to electrify.
If you're on Facebook, join us, it's a great place to ask questions and have discussions.
There's an important rule though - the group is purposely politically purple, so we avoid the subjects of climate change, policy, and politics in general - it's meant to be a place to discuss the nuts and bolts of electrification, not to get into arguments.
If you are ok with those ground rules, I'd like to invite you to join the group:
Join the Electrify Everything Facebook Group
If you're looking for an HVAC 2.0 contractor or would like to help create one, click here:
Find an HVAC 2.0 Contractor
Thanks again for taking the course!
PS As I've ended every time before, if you want to help spread the electrification word, forward this email, share this landing page link http://bit.ly/EEincourse, or buy me a proverbial beer, this project is a labor of love, pass it on!
PPS - Want to chat directly?
I feel like Ferris Bueller at the end of the movie, "You're still here? It's over!" =)
If you are looking for more stuff to consume, be sure to check out the Energy Smart case studies, the 1890, 1900, 1900, and 1918 ones were our first four electrifications, all century homes in Cleveland. We have pulled 10 gas meters and electrified 3 other homes as well, check out this webinar we did live with an electrification client.
Check out the House Whisperer and HVAC 2.0 Youtube channels as well, and be sure to go through any videos in this course you missed.
We didn't do these electrifications just so we could have a small practice in Cleveland Ohio. The 10-20 homes a year we can do with that practice aren't even a drop in the ocean.
Instead, all along we were building a replicable process for selling and executing the projects that is now HVAC 2.0.
If we want to electrify US homes, we have about 60 million to do by 2050 or about 2 million per year. I can't overstate how large a challenge this is. 11 cold or cold-ish climate states represent 50% of US residential fossil gas use.
In our experience, 80-90% of cold climate HVAC contractors actively sell AGAINST heat pumps. They went through troubles with single stage equipment and other challenges, they look at heat pumps not unlike early 80's diesels in the US: with utter disdain.
Changing this is akin to getting someone to change political parties or religions. It's that tough.
And then using heat pumps in cold climates is substantially riskier to contractors. They are afraid, and frankly they should be. It is not unheard of for a poorly installed or commissioned heat pump in a leaky house to get $1000 January or February electric bills which makes clients howl in protest, and the HVAC contractor is left holding the bag.
So we have a multi-prong challenge.
We need to de-risk heat pumps for contractors, they need to be educated about higher end heat pumps that are not their father's heat pump and provide remarkable comfort and client benefits. We need to give them a soup to nuts sales process to do this.
We have to inject building science into their business models because testing with a blower door is the best way to size HVAC accurately and decide if a heat pump is a good idea for a house or not.
We need to have a change in their business model that is gentle enough that it doesn't put them out of business as they switch, as other building science/building performance programs have in the past.
We need a 100% market based solution because past about 1% penetration the heavy incentives to jump start markets get expensive enough that they are politically untenable.
We need a market based solution that doesn't appeal to just early adopter consumers (or contractors for that matter.) It has to be a whole solution that is demonstrably better than what currently exists.
We need to educate consumers in an automated way so that they can see the value of higher end HVAC and potentially doing insulation and air sealing work on their homes. It can't be costly or it will fail.
We need a repeatable process so that much of the work can be done by entry level talent. Currently the best building science pros are akin to Michael Jordan or Lebron James: once in a generation talent. We need the JV team to be able to play.
We need a results competition so that good work is finally competitive disadvantage and we get a race to the top on quality rather than a race to the bottom on price. This also provides consumer protection because bad actors will become visible. We can do measurement and verification with this data as well.
Most importantly, we need a business model that is so good that if HVAC contractors don't use it, they are at risk of going out of business when their competitors blow by them.
HVAC 2.0 seeks to solve all those and more. And it's looking really, really good. Check out this testimonial from Reedie Ward.
The path to do all that is incredibly narrow. So narrow we haven't wanted to seek investors or grants because they limit our ability to pivot quickly, take our time, and experiment. So we've chosen to bootstrap it.
I currently have my head down working to get HVAC 2.0 out of beta and ready to scale in early 2022. We haven't taken a salary from it yet, and every minute I spend not focused on bringing HVAC 2.0 to full fruition is putting it at risk. We still only have 50/50 odds of success (up from 1 in a million a few years ago.) We are years ahead of any other programs, HVAC 2.0 is probably by far the best shot at scaling residential electrification that exists. And it is still at fairly high risk of failing.
Because of this, I charge for any time that isn't directly focused on HVAC 2.0. You can buy an hour here for $250, additional time is $200/hour.
Thanks again for taking the course!
If you are looking for more stuff to consume, be sure to check out the Energy Smart case studies, the 1890, 1900, 1900, and 1918 ones were our first four electrifications, all century homes in Cleveland. We have pulled 10 gas meters and electrified 3 other homes as well, check out this webinar we did live with an electrification client.
Check out the House Whisperer and HVAC 2.0 Youtube channels as well, and be sure to go through any videos in this course you missed.
We didn't do these electrifications just so we could have a small practice in Cleveland Ohio. The 10-20 homes a year we can do with that practice aren't even a drop in the ocean.
Instead, all along we were building a replicable process for selling and executing the projects that is now HVAC 2.0.
If we want to electrify US homes, we have about 60 million to do by 2050 or about 2 million per year. I can't overstate how large a challenge this is. 11 cold or cold-ish climate states represent 50% of US residential fossil gas use.
In our experience, 80-90% of cold climate HVAC contractors actively sell AGAINST heat pumps. They went through troubles with single stage equipment and other challenges, they look at heat pumps not unlike early 80's diesels in the US: with utter disdain.
Changing this is akin to getting someone to change political parties or religions. It's that tough.
And then using heat pumps in cold climates is substantially riskier to contractors. They are afraid, and frankly they should be. It is not unheard of for a poorly installed or commissioned heat pump in a leaky house to get $1000 January or February electric bills which makes clients howl in protest, and the HVAC contractor is left holding the bag.
So we have a multi-prong challenge.
We need to de-risk heat pumps for contractors, they need to be educated about higher end heat pumps that are not their father's heat pump and provide remarkable comfort and client benefits. We need to give them a soup to nuts sales process to do this.
We have to inject building science into their business models because testing with a blower door is the best way to size HVAC accurately and decide if a heat pump is a good idea for a house or not.
We need to have a change in their business model that is gentle enough that it doesn't put them out of business as they switch, as other building science/building performance programs have in the past.
We need a 100% market based solution because past about 1% penetration the heavy incentives to jump start markets get expensive enough that they are politically untenable.
We need a market based solution that doesn't appeal to just early adopter consumers (or contractors for that matter.) It has to be a whole solution that is demonstrably better than what currently exists.
We need to educate consumers in an automated way so that they can see the value of higher end HVAC and potentially doing insulation and air sealing work on their homes. It can't be costly or it will fail.
We need a repeatable process so that much of the work can be done by entry level talent. Currently the best building science pros are akin to Michael Jordan or Lebron James: once in a generation talent. We need the JV team to be able to play.
We need a results competition so that good work is finally competitive disadvantage and we get a race to the top on quality rather than a race to the bottom on price. This also provides consumer protection because bad actors will become visible. We can do measurement and verification with this data as well.
Most importantly, we need a business model that is so good that if HVAC contractors don't use it, they are at risk of going out of business when their competitors blow by them.
HVAC 2.0 seeks to solve all those and more. And it's looking really, really good. Check out this testimonial from Reedie Ward.
The path to do all that is incredibly narrow. So narrow we haven't wanted to seek investors or grants because they limit our ability to pivot quickly, take our time, and experiment. So we've chosen to bootstrap it.
I currently have my head down working to get HVAC 2.0 out of beta and ready to scale in early 2022. We haven't taken a salary from it yet, and every minute I spend not focused on bringing HVAC 2.0 to full fruition is putting it at risk. We still only have 50/50 odds of success (up from 1 in a million a few years ago.) We are years ahead of any other programs, HVAC 2.0 is probably by far the best shot at scaling residential electrification that exists. And it is still at fairly high risk of failing.
Because of this, I charge for any time that isn't directly focused on HVAC 2.0. You can buy an hour here for $250, additional time is $200/hour.
Thanks again for taking the course!
