Let’s electrify America’s buildings
Save money and reduce carbon pollution with a shock to the system ⚡️
The Benefits of Reducing Carbon Pollution with Building Electrification & Efficiency
✅ Lowers household energy bills
The average household can save around $600 on its yearly energy bills by installing heat pumps and induction stoves. Additionally, electrification protects us from future energy price spikes due to unstable fossil fuel prices.
✅ Cleans air inside our homes and buildings
Fossil fuel powered appliances create air pollution that contributes to serious respiratory problems like asthma, particularly in children. In many homes, the air we breathe inside is dirtier than the air outside of them. Electrification will clean the air we breathe while sleeping, cooking, and spending time with family indoors.
✅ Efficiency benefits low-income households
Making homes more energy efficient by weatherizing them reduces energy waste and bills. Low income households, which spend disproportionately more income on home energy, could save up to 35% on their energy bills through weatherization projects.
✅ Creates jobs in construction
Building electrification and efficiency will create good-paying careers for construction workers, plumbers, heating and cooling installers, electricians, and more. These jobs will be created in every community in America and can’t be sent overseas.
Building Electrification and Efficiency FAQ
What is building electrification?
Today, nearly ¾ of America’s buildings use fossil fuels to heat space or water, or cook food, creating 10% of our carbon pollution each year. Half of new homes today are built with fossil fuel heating or appliances, locking in that carbon pollution for decades.
Building electrification means switching from using fossil fuels in our home appliances to using clean energy. For existing homes, we need to switch to electric appliances that can significantly reduce or eliminate carbon pollution. For new homes, we need to ensure construction is electric-ready.
What is building efficiency?
Building efficiency is the measure of how productively our homes are using the resources that power them. Some appliances and homes, especially older ones, use energy less efficiently, leading to higher costs, energy waste and increased carbon pollution. Currently, up to 20% of the money spent on home energy by an average American is wasted.
Weatherization is the process of making a building more energy efficient through various upgrades. Weatherization can involve:
- Installing insulation
- Repairing and adjusting heating and cooling systems
- Mitigating air infiltration
- Replacing door and window weatherstripping
- Sealing ducts
- And more
The U.S. Department of Energy offers a Whole-House Weatherization program that use a network of local providers to assist homeowners in identifying and making these upgrades.
What grants and rebates are there to help me electrify my home and make it more efficient?
Congress has recently taken action to make electrification affordable, including:
- $14,000 in rebates for homeowners for home weatherization and electrification – enough to cover all or close to all of the upfront cost of upgrades.
- Rebates for landlords to make rental units more energy efficient and upgrade to electric appliances. Renters can educate their landlords on these programs. (In some cases, renters may be able to update their rental units with electric appliances that they can take with them when they leave.)
- Grants for increasing the efficiency of affordable housing which will reduce utility bills for residents.
What can be done to support building electrification and efficiency?
Homeowners and landlords can choose to electrify and make their properties more efficient. Local community leaders can also take advantage of grants for public buildings & housing.
There are existing incentives that make electrification and efficiency more affordable for public buildings, including affordable housing. It’s important that our local officials educate themselves about these initiatives and commit to helping electrification initiatives.
What kind of building electrification policies does CCL support?
We support policies that speed up the pace of building electrification while making it affordable for low and middle income homes to electrify. We advocate for equitable and fair building electrification and efficiency policies while educating local officials and the public on the importance of efficiency and electrification and what they can do.
