10455917484?profile=RESIZE_710xMark your calendars for the East Bay Green Home Tour on May 14th and 15th! This virtual program consists of 12 short video tours of different homes in the East Bay and includes a Q&A with homeowners interested in similar home upgrade projects. 

The East Bay Green Home Tour features a unique neighbor-to-neighbor format that allows diverse residents to see families, homes, and situations that resemble theirs. This hyperlocal approach means that homeowners and sponsors can share products and services that can help attendees take the next step toward their own green home vision.

Register here.

“A green home is ready for the challenges of climate change; a haven during heat waves and smoke-filled fire season; powered by renewable energy; conserves water; does not pollute or emit greenhouse gasses; sequesters carbon in the soil; makes the most of reused, recycled, and composted materials; supports the health of humans and the ecosystem; is a beautiful place to live that aligns with your values.” - East Bay Green Home

 

How Single Family Homeowners Can Get Started:

 Get to know your house:

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Home Energy Checkup: This is an easy way to learn how you can save energy and money and create a cozier and healthier home!  Home Energy Checkups provide a custom assessment of your home to identify the best options for improving your home’s energy use and air quality. According to the Department of Energy, implementing the energy upgrades recommended in a Home Energy Audit can save 5%-30% on your monthly energy bill. 

BayREN Home Energy Efficiency Toolkit: Check out the Energy Efficiency Toolkit available at any County library branch and find out how to increase energy efficiency at home.

Now that you have looked at the different areas of your home, you can see which projects are eligible for BayREN home upgrades.

How to Get Started: Single Family Homeowners

NOTE: Townhomes which have their own utility meters are typically treated by BayREN as single-family.  If in doubt as to whether your home would fall under BayREN's single-family or multi-family programs, please contact a BayREN representative.

 Baby steps towards making the switch: Visit the Challenge to take Action using step by step guides and location based resources!

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The Switch is On: Learn about all-electric appliances, and how to transition your home to an all-electric home. Want to make the switch but aren’t sure where to start? Read up on  Electrification 101 to find out how to get started today.   

Install Electric Heat Pump Heater:

An electric heat pump heating system is highly efficient and can save you a lot of money and energy, as well as significantly lower your impact on climate.  

Why are heat pumps so energy efficient?  A heat pump system works the same way as a refrigerator—it takes the heat out of the surrounding air and pumps it into your home.  Since heat pumps move heat, rather than converting it from fuel like traditional combustion heating systems, they use less energy to operate. Heat pump systems also provide both heating and cooling! 

 Install Electric Heat Pump Water Heater:

A Heat Pump Water Heater is a highly efficient electric water heater.  It looks just like a regular water heater with a storage tank; the only difference is how it heats your water.  

A heat pump water heater works just like an air conditioner or refrigerator, but in reverse. It takes the warm air from around the heater and uses that to heat the water. This process is up to 63% more efficient than regular electric water heating. This can create significant savings in energy, money, and impact.

Home Electrification

Most importantly— did you know that swapping out natural gas space heating and water heating systems with heat pump-type systems is one of the top actions you can take to reduce your climate impact? Heat pumps, which are electric-powered devices, can be easily powered by clean, renewable electricity. Replacing gas cooking, gas laundry drying, and gas pool heating with electric systems is also a plus for the environment. Switching from fossil fuel to electric systems is one of the most important actions we can take—it creates the infrastructure to run our homes on clean renewable energy into the future.  

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