Breaking Up With Fossil Fuels: Electrifying Multifamily Buildings

California's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045 is inspiring a wave of building ‘electrification’—a shift away from appliances fueled by natural gas to ones powered by electricity, often sourced from solar or wind power. The City of Santa Barbara has set an even more ambitious goal to power the city with 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030. 

Electrification not only contributes to reducing carbon emissions; it also significantly improves indoor air quality and is more cost efficient in the long run. While the initial financial investment can be significant, home owners can access a number of financial incentives and programs that support installation of solar panels, heat pumps, and other energy-saving upgrades. But what about the more than half of Santa Barbara’s residents who rent, rather than own property, and therefore aren’t directly empowered to make the shift to electric? Fortunately, several programs have emerged to help multifamily building owners replace natural gas infrastructure with electric in order to provide safer and more sustainable rental units for tenants. 

The Community Environmental Council (CEC) has played a key role in connecting building owners to programs like 3C-REN (Tri-County Regional Energy Network) and SOMAH (Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing) that provide monetary incentives and technical assistance to make electrification a smooth and rewarding experience. A manager of two multifamily buildings near North State Street in Santa Barbara, for example, heard about the 3C-REN Multifamily Home Energy Savings program after a conversation with CEC staff, and is working to complete energy upgrades on all units. As a childhood asthma sufferer, the building owner was concerned about increased risk of asthma and respiratory illnesses from gas-powered appliances and decided to replace all gas stoves with induction stoves and electric ovens, switch out gas wall-heaters for heat pump mini split units, and install solar panels on the buildings, among other energy-efficiency upgrades.

As building owners learn about the services offered by these programs, the benefits of electrification will continue to reach more renters. Michael Sarassat, Energy & Transportation Project Manager for CEC, acts as a key liaison for property owners looking for support and advice for building electrification. “Improving energy efficiency in multifamily buildings is an important step in bringing clean energy benefits to renters, who have historically been left out of the financial and health benefits from energy efficiency and electrification,” he says.

Electric buildings are much safer and healthier for building dwellers. A 2013 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study found that 60-percent of homes in the state that cook at least once a week with a gas stove produce toxic levels of nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, and carbon monoxide exceeding federal standards for outdoor air quality. Providing pathways to convert multifamily buildings from gas to electric will be an important way to protect the health of renters who do not otherwise have control over the installed appliances—or the health impacts caused by them—in their homes.

All-electric buildings are also more affordable to build and operate. To date, Sixty California jurisdictions have passed new building electrification codes or ordinances. For new buildings, forgoing gas hookups can save thousands of dollars in construction costs, and reports from the California Energy Commission show that all-electric buildings across nearly all types of construction cost slightly less than mixed-fuel counterparts, which is of vital importance with California’s housing affordability crisis.

Most important for state and regional carbon neutrality goals, all-electric buildings are more sustainable as they use highly efficient heat pumps and can be powered by 100% renewable electricity. Currently, energy from buildings contribute to 24% of California's greenhouse gas emissions, and much of that comes from burning natural gas. Combined with other energy efficient options like heat pumps for heating and cooling, double-paned windows and insulation, newer models of refrigerators, washing machines and dryers, going electric will play a critical role in our shift toward a clean energy future.

California is at a pivotal point in our shift toward 100% clean energy and net-zero carbon emissions. CEC continues to build on this momentum by connecting Central Coast homes and building owners, residents, businesses, and nonprofits with the most up-to-date information and incentives to help them make the switch to electric.

Learn more about 3C-REN (Tri-County Regional Energy Network) and SOMAH (Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing). 

Read more about what CEC is doing to help our region go electric and end our dependence on fossil fuels.