Drawbacks of Home Electrification

Electric appliances are mostly superior than than the fossil-fuel versions. However, there are some drawbacks, and I think it’s important we are open and clear about them.

Of course, I believe that the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks for most people most of the time.

Possible Drawbacks for all electric appliances

May require electrical work, including main service & panel upgrade, and new circuits to the appliances.
- Counter-points / mitigations:
  - There are incentives available to offset these costs.
  - You’ll get to remove gas infrastructure, including the regulator and meter.
Often are more expensive up front (i.e., an “investment).
- Counter-points / mitigations: They are an investment — most of these are upgrades that will pay for themselves over the long term.
They may stop working when there’s no electricity.
- Counter-points / mitigations: Batteries or generators can be used when the power is out. Some stoves even have their own battery which not only allows them to work in an outage, but also allows them to be plugged into regular 120V outlets (eliminating the possible need to run a new 240V circuit to the stove).

Meanwhile, all electric appliances have these benefits over their gas counterparts

They’re better for your health: They can’t leak methane and won’t emit carbon monoxide into the home, which can have adverse affects on health, or even cause death.
They’re safer for you and your family: They can’t start fires nor cause explosions as easily.
- It will eventually also be safer for your community: When we’re all off of natural gas and get rid of its infrastructure, we eliminate the risk of catastrophic events such as the San Bruno pipeline explosion.
They’re usually less expensive to operate. On the other hand, electricity prices can have higher variability (e.g., market rate electricity plans, or more expensive EV charging stations).
They’re better for the environment.
They’re better for energy security: We aren’t as dependent on a limited resource that we largely rely on imports for.
You may be able to remove venting. For us, our furnace vented into an old, otherwise unused chimney. After replacing our gas furnace we were able to remove the duct to the chimney, which people hit their head on many times, and the chimney itself.

Stoves

May be a bit of noisier than gas stoves: Some have a fan to keep the internals from over-heating. They aren’t usually loud, but they’re not silent, either. However, stove usage is often accompanied by range hood fans, which are usually louder than the stove’s fan.
- Some portable induction stoves make a high-pitched sound when they’re on. Fortunately, this isn’t as common as it used to be, especially for non-portable units.

Benefits that make electric stoves still likely a better choice

A quick summary from this post:

They’re safer:
- Without open flames, they’re less likely to start fires.
- Don’t have elements that are as hot as a gas stove.
They’re faster. They get your cookware hotter faster.
They’re easier to get precise, consistent heat. Some even have the ability to maintain a specified temperature.
They’re easier to clean.

Ovens

I haven’t experienced any way in which a gas oven is better than an electric oven. 🤷

Benefits that make electric ovens still likely a better choice

Nothing (on top of what generally makes electric appliances better than gas ones).

Water Heaters

Slower to heat up water: they have a lower “Recovery Rate,” which means it takes them longer to heat up the water in the tank.
- Counter-points / mitigations:
  - Recovery rate might not be an issue. That is, the tank capacity might be sufficient, and taking longer to heat up the water in the tank for the next uses might not matter.
  - Hybrid water heaters, which have a recovery rate between gas water heaters and heat pump-only water heaters, is an option that balances recovery rate with efficiency. Smarter ones allow you set it so that you use only the heat pump if that ends up being sufficient.
  - Getting a slightly larger capacity tank can reduce the need for a higher recovery rate.
They can be a bit noisy: The heat pump (a compressor and a fan) can be loud enough to not be a good option for some installations (e.g., if they’re next to a living area).
They require condensate drainage: Heat pumps produce condensate — like water dripping off of an air conditioner — that needs to be handled. This could entail a pump and a tube to outside if there isn’t a drain nearby.
- Counter-points / mitigations:
  - This also means the water heater is dehumidifying the air around it, which could be a benefit.
  - Gas water heaters need a vent to outside, which is often more obtrusive and difficult than handling condensate.

Want to learn more?

Here are my posts on heat pump water heaters:

Heat Pump Clothes Dryer

Takes longer: Heat pump dryers take longer to dry clothes than gas and resistive electric dryers.
- Counter-points / mitigations: Hybrid heat pump dryers are a good compromise that have drying times close to gas and resistive electric dryers, with all the benefits of non-gas appliance (health, safety, etc) and double the efficiency of resistive-only electric dryers.
They add heat and humidity to the room: Heat pump dryers are ventless. Rather than expelling the moisture out of the vent (along with hot air, which is a big reason why vented dryers are inefficient), it is condensed into water into a tank or pumped into a drain. Without the vent, some of the moisture and heat leaks into the room that it’s in.
- Counter-points / mitigations:
  - This could be considered a benefit in some situations (during cold, dry winters).
  - We put ours in the same space as our heat pump water heater, which puts out cold, dehumidified air, so they cancel each other out somewhat.

Other notes

If drying time is important to you, consider hybrid heat pump dryers.
There are 120V options if installing a 240V outlet is challenging for whatever reason.

Benefits of heat pump clothes dryers

They don’t require venting (we were able to remove a lot of infrastructure dedicated to venting of gas appliances and reclaimed some very usable space and headroom).
They remove a significant source of home fires: dirty dryer vents. The National Fire Protection Association estimates that nearly 4,000 fires a year were caused by dust, fiber, or lint in clothes dryers.
They don’t leave a mess outside of the vent. Many vents leave lint build-up just outside of the home.

HVAC systems

Needs more space outside for the outdoor heat exchanger if you don’t already have or weren’t going to add air conditioning.
- Counter-points / mitigations:
  - If you already have air conditioning, or wanted it anyway, then you’ll have an outdoor unit anyway.
  - Heat pumps don’t require venting (like gas furnaces do).
Heating makes more noise outside. Heat pumps run a compressor and fan outside while heating (just like air conditioning while cooling). Gas furnaces, on the other hand, are generally inaudible from outside — the only sound you might hear is the venting.
- Counter-points / mitigations: The inside unit makes less noise than a gas furnace.
May have difficulty operating in extreme cold.
- Counter-points / mitigations: Can get heat strips (or even gas) that can be used during extreme cold spells.

Benefits that make heat-pump HVAC systems still likely a better choice

Heat pumps can generally run at lower/slower speeds (10-30%, whereas gas can’t run below about 40%), allowing for milder, quieter operation.
Heat pumps also cool (“air condition”), so you get that in addition to heating even if you weren’t planning on having that.
Heat pumps don’t require exhaust venting.

For more details on our electrification journey, see Our Electrification Journey.