SJ residents brace for upheaval as mandated gas appliance replacement looms

Families & Homes SJ digs into the messy implications of the City and Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s (BAAQMD) proposed gas-to-electric conversion mandate. This “Burn-Out Ordinance” could force locals to wait weeks for drastic residence updates. Further, many homes and businesses don’t have enough space (1,000 cubic feet, to be exact) to accommodate the prescribed heat-pump water heater, and may have to forfeit precious living space.

A few of our concerns are listed below – but just a few:   

1.     Significant Costs to Homeowners
Up-front Gas-to-electric conversion costs for residential HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and water heaters are significant ($30K to $60K or more depending on the scale of project.) 

2.     Elapsed Time to Complete Replacement
Gas-to-electric conversion may also require extensive electrical work. If panel upgrades, service upgrades, trenching, and/or plumbing re-routing are required, the time for replacing could be weeks.  You may have to move out of your home if your furnace or water heater is being replaced. 

3.     Heat-Pump Water Heaters Cannot Operate in Water Heater Closets
Heat-pump water heaters require a minimum of 1000 cubic feet* (typically a 10 ft x 10 ft room x 10 ft height).  Residences and commercial buildings with water heater closets—very common in older SJ homes with detached garages--do not have adequate space for current heat-pump water heater designs.  Homes and businesses with water heaters currently installed in a water closet will also be greatly impacted. A one-size-fits-all water heater mandate will be impossible for some homeowners to implement without sacrificing 1000 cubic feet of living space, re-piping, or other actions that will increase the cost even further. 

*Editor’s note: This is a different link than the (now-dead) one cited in the excerpted article. Both links are from the gov’t-owned site www.energy.gov.

This article originally appeared in Families & Homes San Jose. Read the whole thing here.

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