Building or Renovating a Home to be All-Electric
Electrical load management
When new homes are built to higher levels of the Zero Carbon Step Code, and existing homes are renovated to decrease their greenhouse gas pollution, heating and hot water equipment that may have previously been fueled by natural gas is moving towards electric heat pumps and hot water heaters.
To avoid needing a higher electrical service, builders and homeowners can be strategic when designing and choosing a home's electrical load. The below resources give builders and homeowners some ideas to help reduce a home's electrical load:
- The Homeowner's Conversational Guide to Electrical Load Management (8 pages)
- The Homeowner's Guide to Electrical Load Management (19 pages)
what happens when the power goes out?
A common worry people have when thinking of living in an all-electric home is how will the home perform during power outages. In most instances, an all-electric home will perform much like one using natural gas as many gas-based systems rely on electricity for the components that allow them to be lit or safely operated.
The City of New Westminster, along with the City of Nanaimo, the City of Kamloops, the Capital Regional District, the Regional District of Nanaimo, and the District of Saanich, organized research and produced a report that looked into these concerns.
The report covers topics such as:
- The likelihood of power outages in BC.
- How BC Hydro is adapting to changing climate conditions.
- The impacts of power outages in electrified homes.
- Improving resilience to power outages, and
- Back-up power strategies.
The homeowners' factsheet and full report can be found on the Building to Electrification Coalition (B2E) website.