Join us as we Electrify Everything

We’ve pledged to electrify everything in our home. We live in a cute-but-modest 3-bedroom Cape, which has been our home for the last thirty years. We are the only owners the house has ever had.

It’s been heated for the last seven years with natural gas, which also powers our hot water, our stove and our tumble dryer. Before that, we heated the home and the hot water with oil.

The two cars we have in the driveway are both powered with gasoline, although one is a hybrid (not the plug-in type, though). That one is a 2008 Lexus SUV, so it’s likely to be replaced soon. We’re planning on buying an electric vehicle to replace it while keeping the 2017 VW Passat for at least a few more years.

We have a nice garden that we tend with a gas-powered lawn mower and a handful of electric tools (chain saw, hedge trimmer and a leaf-blower). One notable aspect of the garden is that it contains several very tall trees that shade the house so much that adding solar panels would not be an option unless we cut several of them down and have several others trimmed back.

We have no real budget mapped out yet, nor even a timeline. What’s more, certain aspects of the transition are going to require some “spousal negotiation” shall we say. Cooking, for instance, is a potential future bone of contention. My wife, who is a fabulous cook, is going to take some convincing before she switches from her current gas stove to an induction one.

And since I’m not much of a cook at all, I may not be the best one to do the convincing. That’s one that is going to have to be framed as having been her idea all along.

Join us as we start our journey to an all-electric house. as we go through these negotiations, learn what it takes and plan out, budget and pay for the upgrades that are needed to make the switch.