Clayton, a leading single-family home builder, recently made big environmental news by deciding to convert nearly all of the 42,000 modern manufactured homes it builds annually to be certified ENERGY STAR and Zero Energy Ready Homes (ZEHR). These certifications mean that its manufactured homes will be much more efficient, save … [continued]
Americans burn much less fossil fuel in their homes on average and use much more electricity compared to half a century ago. This good news means that even though the “Electrify Everything” movement became a leading decarbonization strategy a decade or so ago, American homes had actually been steadily electrifying … [continued]
The “Electrify Everything” movement is full steam ahead in American homes, according to the latest data from AHRI which tracks annual shipments of furnaces, heat pumps, and water heaters. Heat pumps for space heating and electric water heaters have set new records, and gas equipment continued to decline as a … [continued]
A. O. Smith just released a 120V plug-in heat pump water heater (HPWH), which is the second model to arrive on the mass market (the first to market, Rheem, I reviewed here). It is an exciting product with some innovative designs that allows many households to more easily replace their … [continued]
2023 set another record for EV sales in the United States. About 1.2 million vehicles, or 7.6% of all sales, were electric according to Kelley Blue Book. With over 1 million new EVs plugging into garage outlets, home charging stations, and Superchargers, you’d think our electricity usage would have shot … [continued]
My local public radio station, Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), which broadcasts throughout Oregon and southwest Washington, has been running advertisements for a fossil gas utility named Northwest Natural over the past year. OPB has aired ads about the gas utility’s appliance store where users can go and buy fossil fuel-powered, … [continued]
Celebrate Heat Pump Water Heater Day — October 25! Energy-efficient water heating took significant strides in 2022, according to the latest data released by ENERGY STAR. Sales of heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) grew 26% last year, while sales of gas water heaters declined by 17%, underlining a clear shift in the U.S. … [continued]
While electric cars and e-bikes get a lot of attention, there’s a forgotten technology living in your basement or garage that can help significantly reduce your carbon footprint without ever leaving home. Heat pump water heaters (HPWH) not only save 1 ton of CO2 emissions annually compared to gas water … [continued]
“The information and opinions outlined in this article are those of the author and do not represent the positions of New Buildings Institute” Wildfires wake us up. They sound alarm bells. Their smoke calls attention to our atmosphere, which we’ve taken for granted (and dumped pollution into) for centuries. They … [continued]
Water heating uses a lot of energy, and consequently costs a lot of money and creates a lot of pollution. The heat pump water heater is the silver bullet to these water heating problems. It’s efficient, saves money, reduces or eliminates air pollution, and it delivers hot water with faster … [continued]
