By Dave Hewitt |
Berkeley, California made news recently with a ban on natural gas hookups in most new construction. The story has definitely been picked up by the media as Berkeley is the first city to ban natural gas. NRDC estimates that as many as 50 cities in California are considering similar bans. A couple of very good articles that covered the event from different angles are a story in the Guardian that…
By Dave Hewitt |
The Berkeley limitations on new hookups for natural gas will likely set a precedent for new construction activity in many cities and some states across the country. While the efficient, electrified replacement technologies for water and space heating are not well known, they are – at least – likely in the basement or garage. They are out-of-sight and out-of-mind. That is, of course, if they…
By Dave Hewitt |
The Washington state legislature has approved a statewide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector. HB 1257, Clean Buildings for Washington Act includes development of an existing building standard that applies to non-residential buildings along with hotels, motels, and dormitories greater than 50,000 square feet in size. The program will start with a voluntary phase –…
By Dave Hewitt |
In this issue of Building Decarb Central, we look at some of the critical discussions and findings from NEEP’s recent 2019 Air Source Heat Pump Market Transformation Workshop in Woburn, Massachusetts. The two-day event drew about 150 people from all over the U.S. and Canada who focused on building the market to provide low-carbon space heating for buildings. Participants included manufacturers,…
By Dave Hewitt |
Among the excellent sessions at the NEEP Air Source Heat Pump workshop was a presentation by Peter McPhee, Director of Clean Heating and Cooling for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC). The MassCEC has run a program to support Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) technology since May 2017. VRF is a type of air source heat pump that can serve many commercial building types and larger…
By Dave Hewitt |
There is a broad array of heating and cooling system types available in the market that can effectively either decarbonize or electrify (with an increasingly decarbonized grid) building space heating. Some of the newer ones, at least for the U.S. market, were discussed at the NEEP air source heat pump workshop. In addition to discussing ductless and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heat pumps,…
By Dave Hewitt |
Natural gas creates carbon dioxide when we burn it to heat buildings and water. But it also leaks methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere when it does not make it all the way to our furnaces and water heaters. Older natural gas lines are more likely to leak. Sometimes the leaks get to explosive levels and make the evening news, but on a regular basis there are smaller…
By Dave Hewitt |
As I expected, my water heater finally sprung a leak. The water heater was here when I bought my home almost 25 years ago, and it looked old then. The plumber who put in the new one said he had only ever seen two other water heaters this old, and thought it might even be original to the house, i.e. installed in 1965. I have been expecting it to fail for 25 years. It finally did.
Yes, it was gas…