Everything has a Step Zero if you want to do it right. Before heading out to play softball, you put on sunscreen. Before making a long trip, you make sure your car’s in good shape.

Going all-electric in your building is no different. Once again, preparation matters.

We’ve talked about building electrification in this blog before – the shift that many homes and businesses are making away from carbon-fueled appliances and services and toward all-electric options for things like cooking, or space and water heating. Some of our customers have even had the chance to see an electric cooktop in action or learn more about electric heat pumps and their effectiveness in heating and cooling a building even in Colorado’s wildest weather.

It’s great to see this getting attention, especially since buildings make up about one-fourth of Colorado’s greenhouse gas emissions. So what’s Step Zero if you want to electrify effectively?

A few simple things can get you started:

• Get an Efficiency Works energy assessment to see where you have opportunities to improve your building’s envelope. That includes checking out your air sealing and insulation – getting a better heating and cooling system will only do so much if your building has poor insulation or is leaky.
• Find a reputable contractor who’s excited about electrification.  
• Identify financing options, including incentives, rebates and climate loan programs.
•  Check the size of your building’s electric panel to make sure it can handle the additional demand. This can be done with your contractor as part of the bid process, but as a rule of thumb, if your panel is 100 amps or less, there’s a good chance it’ll need an upgrade if you’re planning to add something like electric heating or an electric vehicle charger.
• If you’re looking at adding an induction stove, which cooks using electromagnetic energy transferred directly to cookware, you’ll need to make sure your pots and pans are compatible. Take a pot or pan and place a small magnet against the bottom – if the magnet sticks, you’re in good shape; if it falls off or clings weakly, the pan may not work as well.

As always, you can also learn more through the information and links on our own building electrification page and the Efficiency Works electrification website. So read up and plan ahead.

It just might help you Zero in on what you want to do