Berkeley, CA becoming first city in U.S. to ban natural gas in new buildings

That used to be particularly true, but prices have come down markedly in the last 1-2 years and even the upfront costs are now cheaper than a decent NG cooktop.

For example, months ago we got a Frigidaire 36 in. Induction Cooktop with 5 Elements (Model# FFIC3626TB) for $800. It is superior to resistance and NG cooktops in almost every way (including better cooking properties/temperature control and energy use). It costed less than a NG appliance that comes closest to rivaling it.

If our house was built new today and the contractor skipped NG plumbing to and within the house, that would have been a big upfront and long term cost and environment win passed onto the home buyer.

The internal costs, yes, although these are also coming down. Cost to consumer in California, however, is often cheaper right now.

Like plug-in vehicle tax credits and rebates, municipal rebates are not uncommon for heat pump water heaters and IIRC Berkeley has the same in mind if they are not already doing so. Sacramento, for example, has been giving generous rebates on heat pump water heaters for at least a couple years such that it is cheaper for the consumer upfront to replace their old electric resistance water heater to one of these and also usually for old NG water heaters as well.


As a side note, in terms of considering the NG appliances that are typically used in U.S. households, energy use is home air heating > water heating > stove top. NG dryers are probably around water heating in this regard, but most homes built in recent decades like ours already come with a 240V outlet for a dryer.

It should be noted that most U.S. household use substantially more energy to heat their house than to cool it, so starting now on transitioning from NG home air heating to heat pumps with carbon free electricity is crucial if we hope to do our part in mitigating our large carbon footprint.

 

Not certain what "cf" is you reference. Cost factor?

Heat pumps (home air heating/cooling and water heating and possibly clothes dryer), induction cooktop, electric resistance ovens, etc. up front and lifetime costs to the consumer depend on a great many things.

Up front unit costs are easy to see, but install costs, cost of NG in your area, cost of electricity, existing home electrical infrastructure (including service panel and feed in from the street) will influence what upgrades might be needed, municipal/state incentives, etc.


@Sue M.
Looks like you were trying to reply, but no message on your side.

 

Ah, makes sense.

Yes, carbon footprint would be lowest if using heat pumps wherever possible even if electricity is all from NG instead of heating the home and running other appliances with natural gas. Plus, as the grid gets even cleaner in the future, a heat pump home carbon footprint improves with the grid.

Results are less dramatic in the coldest climates, but more dramatic as the grid gets cleaner.

Still, upgrading to NG to heat the home air, water, cooking, fireplace, etc. is a nice step and better than using old electric resistance heating and better than coal or heating oil.

 

Something quite wrong on your end. Very weird, would try again. It might be that it is not in stock at your local Home Depot since few in your region are doing this. But you can order online from them.

Prices I get from Home Depot, where I bought our induction cooktop, are very different. The model I listed previously is still there for $800 and it is not a low end induction range.

I just looked, the lowest end build-in induction cooktop there is $292 and gets 5 stars (excellent rating in Home Depot ratings):

True Induction 24 in. Glass Induction Cooktop in Black with 2 Induction Elements-TI-2B - The Home Depot


Here's another at $370, also 5 stars:

Empava 30 in. Electric Stove Induction Cooktop Smooth Surface in Black Vitro Ceramic Glass with 4 Elements Booster Burner-EMPV-IDC30 - The Home Depot

Let me know if your browser is not showing the same as my model and links above.

In this Berkeley case, probably a decent induction range as the prices are very competitive and resistance electric is considered junk by midrange and higher home buyers. Most new homes do not get the very cheapest appliances unless it's the most entry level starter home, even when it was your choice of only NG.

Ridiculously good, too good even for my sentiments:

• $1,000 rebate for electric-to-electric upgrade
• $3,000 rebate for gas-to-electric conversion *To receive the full $3,000 rebate, receipts must show that total cost of purchase/installation is greater than or equal to $3,000. The total rebated amount will not exceed the total amount paid by Customer for purchase/installation

Appliance rebates

That's a great step. Sunnier and milder places like here in CA are the right place to push earnestly for air sourced heat pump first, then roll out to other states...

 

Yes, but was implying that because there is plenty of sun to feed solar PV and mild winters that allow air sourced heat pumps to run most efficiently, from an economic and environmental perspective this is the place for them to be massively adopted first.

Think solar PV on your roof and heat pumps for your house. ROI and lowest hanging fruit environmental goal easier to achieve in CA.

 

That can be true, but it does not have to be and it’s not hard to work around that tendency.

For example, our heat pump water heater is a “battery”. We can run it on a schedule such that it consumes electricity only during the sunny daytime and don’t have to run it at night but still have hot water any time we desire.

Better yet, hydroelectric plants are also “batteries”. During the day, hydroelectric plants can curtail water flow-through and let the grid utilize all the solar PV available. Some hydroelectric plants also can pump backwards utilizing excess solar PV and wind. Then at night or at other times desired, that accumulated or saved hydroelectric can power heat pumps.

As noted earlier in these threads, PG&E which serves Berkeley, is also unleashing the two largest grid chemical batteries in the world…

 

Indeed, will work for all new heat pump water heaters from the last few years as all of them are factory hard shelled well insulated.

That’s the beauty of it, you don’t need to superheat a home. The energy required is much less than you might think. For example, we kept our 2,550 ft^2 house nice and warm all of the last heating season for only ~1800 kWh. Only half of that energy was drawn at night and with some mild over-heating during the day and turning the temp 2-3 degrees down at night you can half that again.

Insulation/home thermal envelope is important here too.

There is/will be enough hydro, wind, and geothermal capacity to do this at a large scale with TOU plans. Some regions are hydro-poor, but that won't stop this. It’s only getting better with chemical batteries coming online which will continue to fill the gaps. Better regional interconnects will come as well.