Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Experts from Rewiring America, the New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH), the League of Conservation Voters and other groups, architects conducted a conference Monday to discuss the benefits and plausibility of the state's electric agenda and the All-Electric Building Act.
"Electrification is not only doable, it is affordable, will create jobs, save New Yorkers money and improve the health and safety of our state," said Michael Hernandez, Rewiring America's New York Policy Director.
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Architects from New York's chapter of American Institute of Architects emphasized that electrification of homes and buildings is already underway.
"The buildings that we are designing now need to comply with more stringent and more demanding energy codes. And it's it is just the way things are going," said John Woelfing with Dattner Architects.
"We're doing this now. We are we're doing it every day. It's a system called passive house (Passivehaus). And it's a relatively straightforward way to bring down your building's carbon footprint and provide superior indoor environment for the building residents. You basically invest in the building envelope, you have a high performance envelope, and you have high efficiency mechanical systems, and then you rely on the building's passive occupancy to generate heat, lights, cooking, showers, those all add heat to their passive internal heat gains, and the passive house system utilizes that to dramatically reduce a building's energy profile."
Woelfing says this system in place reduces emissions, reduces energy bills and is a healthier alternative to using natural gas.
"In order to have any hope at all, even a slim one of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is the goal that the United States and many other countries have committed ourselves to at the Paris Climate Accords, we would need to cut emissions basically in half by 2030, and reach net zero emissions by the early 2050s," said Patrick McClelland, Policy Director at the New York League of Conservation Voters. "The thing about these zero emission heating technologies now is that we know that they're reliable, we know that they work in cold weather, we know that they work in even extreme conditions."
McClelland referenced the blizzard that occurred in Buffalo over Christmas as an example.
"There were all kinds of stories coming out on social media of people who had both air and ground source heat pumps, and they had no interruption in heating during during the storm, even when they had two feet of snow on and around the pump. So, you know, there, there is no reason to not do this because the technology is ready. We really have an imperative to get this done if we're serious about about tackling climate change."
Hernandez also addressed affordability in making his case. "Research shows that new all electric, single family homes are less expensive to build than mixed fuel homes that rely on gas for cooking, space heating and water heating, in addition to being more affordable to build.
Recent research has shown that the average new single family home built in New York State will save approximately $904 per year built with a cold climate, air source heat pump, instead of a furnace or boiler, and savings could reach over $1,000 if builders opt for ground source heat pumps. The research showing that for folks who are who are building these electrified homes, there's real savings in not only the construction, but in the operation."
The panel also addressed backup power in the event of outages.
"It's important to remember that many fossil fuel heating appliances we have in place today rely on electric subsystems, and so require electricity to work. Electrified homes can be far more resilient during power outages than fossil fuel powered homes. The All Electric Buildings Act does not prohibit emergency backup systems.
Gas furnaces on the market today still need electricity to power their electronics and fans, so they don't increase household resiliency. Everyday, new technologies are coming to market that will keep electric machines running when the grid goes down. Electrification also has the potential to increase household energy with reliability, and resiliency, as more households install solar plus battery systems that keep homes powered, regardless of grid," said Hernandez.
Woelfing adds that passive houses are incredibly resilient.
"They have thermal momentum. You can basically heat an apartment with a hand dryer. So there is those internal heat gains in that high performance envelope that allows the building to either maintain its temperature in the wintertime for longer, or it's it's reduced to temperature in the summertime. So it really is building to the Passivhaus standard, it does address that resiliency in a way that just makes so much sense."