If you’re like us and want to speed up the clean energy revolution, decarbonize your life, save on your electric bill, and make your home more resilient, you have a few options to run your home and vehicle on clean energy. In most cases, this means harnessing the power of … [continued]
Over the past three summers, our family of four has driven around 12,000 miles, across 20+ states, on our now annual electric vehicle road trip. After many days on the road, we can confidently say that one of the most important strategies (if not the most) for a successful multi-day, … [continued]
Heat pump dryer (in hat) joins its cousins, heat pump water heaters and air source heat pumps, to save the world.
Heat pumps are one of the key technologies that will save the planet from the unfolding climate crisis. In addition to heating our water and heating and cooling our homes, in their latest incarnation, they can now also dry our clothes. Yes, heat pump dryers are an exciting, mostly uncharted, … [continued]
Powering our lives with clean energy is essential to decarbonize and eliminate the CO2 emissions that are changing the climate before our eyes. Fortunately, clean energy is now more accessible than ever with multiple options for every household including the exciting, new kid on the block: community solar. While grid-supplied … [continued]
There are lots of reasons why induction cooking is better than gas: control, speed, safety, health, and the environment. In our last post, we sang the praises of induction and dug into all the reasons it is crucial for decarbonizing our lives. In this post, we assume you’re sold and … [continued]
How we cook our food plays a big role in our ability to fully decarbonize our lives and keep our families healthy. While less significant in its emissions compared to other home activities like space and water heating, cooking can be one of the last holdouts in the transition to … [continued]
This is a story of electricity beating gas. In 2021, we decided to fix up a duplex in Cleveland, Ohio, that has been in our family for 75 years. After some serious aesthetic and sustainable improvements, we unintentionally ran a multi-year case study in which we experimented with two identical … [continued]
A decade old argument in our house relates to the right indoor temperature for our long, chilly, and wet Portland winters. It’s not just a matter of what temperature makes each of us most comfortable (a common household debate) but in our house, where energy savings reign king, it’s also … [continued]
Heat pumps are one of the essential technologies for a decarbonized life. They heat everything, from air to water to laundry, using electricity that can be cleanly powered by renewable energy. They are three to five times more efficient than natural gas, fuel oil or electric resistance systems. They also … [continued]
The great unsung news about decarbonization is how much money we all stand to save when we power our homes and transportation with clean and efficient electricity. The five people in our household (our family of 4 plus 1 renter in an Accessory Dwelling Unit on our property) offer a … [continued]
