WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.086 As we roll further into this decade, 00:00:02.086 --> 00:00:05.275 we will undoubtedly accelerate our collective endeavor 00:00:05.275 --> 00:00:11.509 to stop constantly working to extract gross sticky goops and explodey gasses out of the ground, 00:00:11.509 --> 00:00:15.780 spend more effort purifying and refining that gunk into products 00:00:15.780 --> 00:00:19.672 that we then promptly set on fire to just get a moment’s work out of... 00:00:19.672 --> 00:00:21.972 before we’re forced to do it all over again. 00:00:21.972 --> 00:00:24.552 Because, ya know, we set fire to it. 00:00:24.552 --> 00:00:25.787 It’s gone now. 00:00:25.787 --> 00:00:31.285 Luckily, we have this amazingly flexible electric infrastructure out there which, 00:00:31.285 --> 00:00:35.289 while today does still do a fair bit of burning stuff to keep the lights on, 00:00:35.289 --> 00:00:37.365 is doing that less and less. 00:00:37.365 --> 00:00:46.621 We have these technologies that you build one time and then! They make electrical energy for decades just because they exist! 00:00:46.621 --> 00:00:50.814 And yeah they’re trickier to manage, which is a problem we’re actively working on, 00:00:50.814 --> 00:00:56.420 but every passing year breaks a new record for renewables generation, and that’s pretty neat. 00:00:56.420 --> 00:01:03.126 And wouldn’t ya know it, most things we do today which involve setting fire to something have an electric alternative, 00:01:03.126 --> 00:01:06.595 including everything you do in your home. 00:01:06.595 --> 00:01:11.834 The catch, because there’s always a catch, is that those alternatives take work to deploy. 00:01:11.834 --> 00:01:17.359 So in this video, I’d like to discuss what’s needed to electrify the typical American home. 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:23.291 It may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be; we have some pretty slick tricks up our sleeves. 00:01:23.291 --> 00:01:25.472 This video is the first of two parts. 00:01:25.472 --> 00:01:32.636 Here, we’ll mostly be talking about how energy management innovations can sidestep the headache of a service upgrade. 00:01:32.636 --> 00:01:37.584 In part two, we’ll discuss alternative appliances which can make the switch even easier, 00:01:37.584 --> 00:01:43.893 and we’ll also go over some potential solutions to dealing with power outages in an all-electric home. 00:01:43.893 --> 00:01:45.854 Three quick notes before we start: 00:01:45.854 --> 00:01:50.027 First, I’m going to be focusing on the American home because, y’know, 00:01:50.027 --> 00:01:51.233 me live there, 00:01:51.233 --> 00:01:55.071 but the fundamentals are generally the same no matter where you are. 00:01:55.071 --> 00:02:02.230 Second, I’m not going to go into operating cost comparisons here as that’s a very local consideration. 00:02:02.230 --> 00:02:10.886 But I will just point out with a hint of snark that in case it has escaped you the prices of fossil fuel products have gotten pretty dang volatile lately, 00:02:10.886 --> 00:02:15.572 meanwhile electric technologies continue to get cheaper and more efficient. 00:02:15.572 --> 00:02:22.670 And lastly, in a similar vein, I’m deliberately not talking about the stuff that needs to be done to the power grid. 00:02:22.670 --> 00:02:26.713 You don’t need to write-in about that — we all know that’s a big challenge ahead of us, 00:02:26.713 --> 00:02:29.901 but that work is happening as we speak. 00:02:29.901 --> 00:02:38.972 I’m here simply to talk about the work that needs to happen in your home to make setting fire to stuff just to live your life a thing of the past. 00:02:38.972 --> 00:02:43.078 And the good news is that in many ways, it already is. 00:02:43.078 --> 00:02:47.531 The vast majority of the stuff you use and rely on is electric: 00:02:47.531 --> 00:02:49.728 from hair dryers to air fryers, 00:02:49.728 --> 00:02:51.572 curling irons to waffle irons, 00:02:51.572 --> 00:02:52.459 your refrigerator, 00:02:52.459 --> 00:02:53.102 deep freeze, 00:02:53.102 --> 00:02:54.519 that extra fridge you have in the basement, 00:02:54.519 --> 00:02:55.829 coffee maker, panini maker, 00:02:55.829 --> 00:02:57.269 microwave oven, toaster oven, 00:02:57.269 --> 00:02:58.108 your air purifier, 00:02:58.108 --> 00:02:58.627 your computer, 00:02:58.627 --> 00:02:59.127 your phone, 00:02:59.127 --> 00:02:59.778 your internet modem, 00:02:59.778 --> 00:03:00.413 your TV, 00:03:00.413 --> 00:03:01.260 your game consoles, 00:03:01.260 --> 00:03:01.879 lava lamps, 00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:03.058 videocassette recorders - 00:03:03.058 --> 00:03:06.931 all that stuff plugs into the wall and gets power that way. 00:03:06.931 --> 00:03:07.714 They even 00:03:07.714 --> 00:03:08.463 — get this — 00:03:08.463 --> 00:03:12.621 they even make cars now that plug-in. 00:03:12.621 --> 00:03:15.872 Something tells me this electricity business is really catching on! 00:03:15.872 --> 00:03:20.922 In fact it’s caught on so well that entirely-electric homes are quite common! 00:03:20.922 --> 00:03:24.940 They’ve been the norm for decades in some parts of the country. 00:03:24.940 --> 00:03:35.361 However, particularly in colder regions, many millions of homes are out there which currently rely on combusting a fuel somewhere inside them to provide heat. 00:03:35.361 --> 00:03:38.627 You, like me, may very well live in one of those homes. 00:03:38.627 --> 00:03:43.541 Sometimes the fuel is the scented methane we like to call “natural” gas, 00:03:43.541 --> 00:03:47.016 or it could be propane, fuel oil, maybe even wood 00:03:47.016 --> 00:03:51.278 or if you’re feeling particularly old-school coal. 00:03:51.278 --> 00:03:54.527 That is in fact still a thing in some parts. 00:03:54.527 --> 00:03:59.193 Although homes which burn fuels almost always have access to electricity, too, 00:03:59.193 --> 00:04:03.206 they still very much rely on those fuels to function. 00:04:03.206 --> 00:04:07.541 And that presents some challenges to completely electrifying those homes. 00:04:07.541 --> 00:04:09.373 How many challenges, you ask? 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:11.214 Four. 00:04:12.211 --> 00:04:13.067 4. 00:04:13.067 --> 00:04:15.228 Seriously, it’s just four. 00:04:15.228 --> 00:04:16.307 At most. 00:04:16.307 --> 00:04:18.449 And that’s the really good news here. 00:04:18.449 --> 00:04:22.206 Unless you’ve got something fancy like a gas fireplace or a garage heater, 00:04:22.206 --> 00:04:23.904 maybe a grill, 00:04:23.904 --> 00:04:27.651 you only have four things which might use one of those fuels. 00:04:27.651 --> 00:04:29.380 ♫ sudden game show music ♫ And they are... 00:04:29.380 --> 00:04:30.491 Your furnace! 00:04:30.491 --> 00:04:32.566 (or boiler if you’re of that persuasion). 00:04:32.566 --> 00:04:34.006 Your water heater! 00:04:34.006 --> 00:04:35.745 Your kitchen stove! 00:04:35.745 --> 00:04:36.624 And lastly, 00:04:36.624 --> 00:04:39.322 get ready Europeans, here comes another weird American thing, 00:04:39.322 --> 00:04:41.532 your clothes dryer! 00:04:41.532 --> 00:04:43.305 Yeah. We do that here. 00:04:43.305 --> 00:04:46.910 Look! New LG tumble dryer… hooked up to a gas line! 00:04:46.910 --> 00:04:49.286 A very good and normal practice! 00:04:49.286 --> 00:04:50.816 But that’s really it. 00:04:50.816 --> 00:04:56.488 Your heat source, your water heater, your stove, and your dryer are the only four things we have to contend with. 00:04:56.488 --> 00:05:03.355 And many homes, especially if they use a fuel that's not natural gas, already have the electric version of one or two of those. 00:05:03.355 --> 00:05:05.320 Maybe even three. 00:05:05.320 --> 00:05:10.748 Speaking of three, dryers, water heaters, and stoves don’t vary all that much from home to home 00:05:10.748 --> 00:05:15.385 so installing the electric versions of those things is pretty straightforward. 00:05:15.385 --> 00:05:22.049 The only thing that’s gonna need much customization is your heat source, and that’s not exactly a new reality anyway. 00:05:22.049 --> 00:05:26.210 So… if there’s only four things to tackle at most… 00:05:26.210 --> 00:05:28.926 why is this difficult at all? 00:05:28.926 --> 00:05:37.316 Well, those four things all need a lot of electrical power to operate - significantly more than can be provided by a standard household outlet. 00:05:37.316 --> 00:05:38.878 But that’s no problem, right? 00:05:38.878 --> 00:05:42.121 Everybody’s got access to 240V in their electrical panels, 00:05:42.121 --> 00:05:45.121 so just run new wires and Bob’s your uncle! 00:05:45.643 --> 00:05:48.794 Well, sure, that’s something that’s gonna need to happen 00:05:48.794 --> 00:05:52.328 (if we assume conventional appliances, stay tuned for part 2!) 00:05:52.328 --> 00:05:57.925 but the lack of the appropriate circuits going to those appliances isn’t the only problem. 00:05:57.925 --> 00:06:00.850 There’s also one of capacity. 00:06:00.850 --> 00:06:03.186 That’s the real show-stopper, here. 00:06:03.186 --> 00:06:12.811 Many homes that lean on gas appliances to do the heavy-lifting don’t have enough electrical power available to make all those electric things work. 00:06:12.811 --> 00:06:15.455 Except, uh, they do. 00:06:15.455 --> 00:06:16.996 Almost always. 00:06:16.996 --> 00:06:22.689 Conventional wisdom says they don’t, but conventional doesn’t always mean correct. 00:06:22.689 --> 00:06:24.368 But first, one last side-note. 00:06:24.368 --> 00:06:26.500 I promise, this is the last one. 00:06:26.500 --> 00:06:34.355 I should address here if you haven’t already gathered that so far I’ve been talking about single-family homes, and, well, 00:06:34.355 --> 00:06:37.408 that’ll continue to be the case as we go on. 00:06:37.408 --> 00:06:42.451 Multi-family buildings will face many of the same challenges for electrification, 00:06:42.451 --> 00:06:46.655 but there are just so many different ways that they can be set up. 00:06:46.655 --> 00:06:53.325 For instance, lots of apartment buildings have big central boilers that distribute heated water to radiators, 00:06:53.325 --> 00:06:58.061 but others have fairly conventional furnaces with central air conditioning in each unit, 00:06:58.061 --> 00:07:03.284 and others still have packaged air conditioners which already provide electric heat. 00:07:03.284 --> 00:07:07.781 And that’s before we get into water heating which may or may not be centralized. 00:07:07.781 --> 00:07:13.600 Setting aside all that wonkiness, retrofitting those buildings is outside the responsibility of tenants 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:17.830 or a collective responsibility in the case of condo ownership. 00:07:17.830 --> 00:07:23.335 So while I’d like to talk beyond single family detached housing, 00:07:23.335 --> 00:07:26.361 other situations are just way too complicated to get into, 00:07:26.361 --> 00:07:28.376 your mileage will vary, see store for details, 00:07:28.376 --> 00:07:30.972 let’s get back to the capacity problem. 00:07:31.117 --> 00:07:37.863 Alright, so generally, a home built here will have either 100A or 200A electrical service. 00:07:37.863 --> 00:07:42.745 Those aren’t the only two options available, but they’re the most common by far. 00:07:42.745 --> 00:07:49.174 If you have 200A service, you don’t even need to be watching this video - your home can easily be all-electric right now, 00:07:49.174 --> 00:07:50.944 assuming it’s not a McMansion. 00:07:50.944 --> 00:07:56.003 But oodles of homes, even pretty big ones, only have 100A service. 00:07:56.003 --> 00:07:59.580 And this was a perfectly rational choice back in the day. 00:07:59.580 --> 00:08:07.391 Gas appliances usually need some electricity to operate, but that’s just for running blowers, pumps, igniters, and control boards. 00:08:07.391 --> 00:08:10.216 They get their heat energy from the fuel they burn, 00:08:10.216 --> 00:08:13.665 so they don’t really tax your electrical system at all. 00:08:13.665 --> 00:08:20.355 When all your appliances which could be gas are gas, the only big electrical demand in your home is air conditioning, 00:08:20.355 --> 00:08:27.295 and even if you need a real big honker of an AC unit, you’ll have at least 50 or 60 amps left for your lights and whatnot. 00:08:27.295 --> 00:08:29.241 And that’s more than plenty. 00:08:29.502 --> 00:08:38.241 However, electric appliances like heaters, stoves, and dryers have to convert electricity into heat and that takes a lot of power. 00:08:38.241 --> 00:08:45.138 To give you some sense of their power needs, a conventional electric water heater pulls 18-24 amps when it runs. 00:08:45.138 --> 00:08:48.242 A clothes dryer pulls pretty much the same when you’re using it. 00:08:48.242 --> 00:08:50.754 And a 3-ton air conditioner when it’s running? 00:08:50.830 --> 00:08:53.801 Well there’s another 20 amps right there. 00:08:53.801 --> 00:08:58.058 Just those three devices pull perhaps 65 amps. 00:08:58.058 --> 00:09:02.432 And a conventional electric range can pull up to 50A. 00:09:02.432 --> 00:09:06.635 Switch that guy on for dinner and now we’re at 115 amps! 00:09:06.635 --> 00:09:07.971 Which is too much! 00:09:07.971 --> 00:09:11.520 We’ll trip the main breaker every time we make dinner, so 00:09:11.520 --> 00:09:17.002 I guess we have no choice but to arrange for an expensive and disruptive electrical service upgrade. 00:09:17.002 --> 00:09:18.209 But hold on a minute. 00:09:18.209 --> 00:09:21.434 Did you catch the little qualifiers I kept sneaking in there? 00:09:21.434 --> 00:09:22.788 When it runs. 00:09:22.788 --> 00:09:24.137 When you’re using it. 00:09:24.137 --> 00:09:25.975 And up to. 00:09:25.975 --> 00:09:32.505 100A electrical service still allows you to pull up to 24 kilowatts (!) from the grid, 00:09:32.505 --> 00:09:34.421 and that’s a lot of power! 00:09:34.421 --> 00:09:37.358 Way more than you almost ever use. 00:09:37.358 --> 00:09:41.687 On average, US households consume 1.2 kilowatts. 00:09:41.890 --> 00:09:44.210 Which only 5 percent of that. 00:09:44.210 --> 00:09:46.363 Now obviously, that’s an average. 00:09:46.363 --> 00:09:52.790 Over the course of a day, power consumption goes up and down depending on what you’re doing at any specific time. 00:09:52.790 --> 00:09:56.036 But that is the key - time. 00:09:56.036 --> 00:09:59.359 We’ve got lots of it to play around with. 00:09:59.359 --> 00:10:03.389 Most of the time, our homes are just sipping power from the grid. 00:10:03.389 --> 00:10:07.593 Heck if you’re away from home on a mild day without the need for heat or air conditioning, 00:10:07.593 --> 00:10:14.000 assuming you didn’t leave any lights on, the only electrical loads are your fridge and internet modem. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.013 And those are tiny! 00:10:16.013 --> 00:10:22.864 Even if we add up all the vampire loads from your smart... whatevers, we’ll draw maaaaaybe 2 amps. 00:10:22.864 --> 00:10:24.831 Unless the fridge happens to be in a defrost. 00:10:24.831 --> 00:10:26.484 Then maybe it’s more like… five. 00:10:26.484 --> 00:10:27.102 At least until it’s done. 00:10:27.102 --> 00:10:34.649 Anyway, the point is we only draw large amounts of power when we’re actively doing stuff! 00:10:34.649 --> 00:10:41.065 Even heating and cooling, which is the largest energy expense of most homes, isn't a constant load. 00:10:41.065 --> 00:10:46.006 Extreme weather might make an HVAC system work really hard on rare occasions, 00:10:46.006 --> 00:10:49.498 but even when that’s happening we can work around it. 00:10:49.498 --> 00:10:57.687 The only practical limitation of 100A service is that you can’t run every high-power load in your home at the same time. 00:10:58.470 --> 00:11:04.235 That might sound like a bummer but I promise that you never actually need to do that. 00:11:04.235 --> 00:11:09.527 Now before you start thinking I’m gonna give you a big flow chart on how to manage your energy use manually, 00:11:09.527 --> 00:11:11.654 rest assured that’s not where I’m going. 00:11:11.654 --> 00:11:13.765 But think about this for a bit. 00:11:13.765 --> 00:11:16.704 How often do you actually use your dryer? 00:11:16.704 --> 00:11:19.492 Probably on laundry day for a few hours, right? 00:11:19.492 --> 00:11:24.620 The vast majority of the time, that’s not an electrical load you have to consider. 00:11:24.620 --> 00:11:26.412 How about a water heater? 00:11:26.412 --> 00:11:32.143 Well, it will actively run when you’re using hot water and for a bit afterwards to recharge the tank, 00:11:32.143 --> 00:11:36.823 but once the tank is back up to temp, it hardly runs at all. 00:11:36.823 --> 00:11:43.285 Alright, and now let’s consider a standard electric range (which, by the way, just means combined cooktop and oven). 00:11:43.285 --> 00:11:46.291 While one of those can pull 50A, 00:11:46.291 --> 00:11:48.665 it’ll only do that IF the oven is on 00:11:48.665 --> 00:11:52.030 and ALL of the cooktop burners are on, too, 00:11:52.030 --> 00:11:54.599 and at *full-power* 00:11:54.599 --> 00:11:55.851 So in other words, 00:11:55.851 --> 00:12:01.558 it never pulls 50A except for maybe a few seconds on Thanksgiving. 00:12:01.558 --> 00:12:08.468 Most of the time it pulls essentially nothing, but even if you’re cooking a complex meal and using all the cooktop burners, 00:12:08.468 --> 00:12:14.311 most will be running at reduced power or cycling on and off, same with the oven element once it's preheated, 00:12:14.311 --> 00:12:21.794 and so more realistically it pulls perhaps 25A - and again, that’s only when you’re using it. 00:12:21.794 --> 00:12:26.056 So obviously, if you’re just a little careful about what you do and when, 00:12:26.056 --> 00:12:30.485 you could have all the electric things without going through a service upgrade. 00:12:30.485 --> 00:12:34.914 You just gotta make sure all those big loads don’t come on at the same time. 00:12:34.914 --> 00:12:43.377 Heck, you can even throw high-power electric car charging into this mix so long as you make sure the car can’t charge when other stuff’s going on. 00:12:43.696 --> 00:12:45.697 This might sound tricky to manage, 00:12:45.697 --> 00:12:50.173 but what if I told you that smart circuit breaker panels are now a thing? 00:12:50.869 --> 00:12:53.827 You might very well do what I did and go like this: 00:12:54.349 --> 00:12:55.603 [exasperated sigh] 00:12:56.763 --> 00:12:57.822 What‽ 00:12:58.779 --> 00:12:59.649 No! 00:12:59.649 --> 00:13:00.642 Stop it! 00:13:01.135 --> 00:13:04.431 That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard of. This IoT stuff is really getting out of hand. 00:13:04.431 --> 00:13:05.347 What could you po… 00:13:06.536 --> 00:13:07.304 oh. 00:13:09.247 --> 00:13:12.114 OOOHHHHhhHHhhHHHHhhHHH. 00:13:12.114 --> 00:13:18.076 Right now, your breaker box has one job: safely distribute power throughout your home. 00:13:18.076 --> 00:13:22.132 The main breaker keeps you from overloading the wires going into your house, 00:13:22.132 --> 00:13:27.446 and the other circuit breakers keep you from pulling too much power on the individual circuits they protect. 00:13:27.446 --> 00:13:31.952 Some might even offer arc-fault protection and ground-fault protection, too. 00:13:31.952 --> 00:13:32.731 But that’s it. 00:13:32.731 --> 00:13:37.450 It won’t disable power to any circuits for any reason other than a fault, 00:13:37.450 --> 00:13:40.250 and then you gotta have Jimmy go reset it. 00:13:40.250 --> 00:13:48.138 But what if it could selectively disable power to high-draw loads when required, and reconnect them later? 00:13:48.138 --> 00:13:51.975 Since all the power in your home goes through this thing, 00:13:51.975 --> 00:13:57.217 it could easily monitor which circuits are active and how much they’re pulling. 00:13:57.217 --> 00:14:03.353 With some pretty simple programming, you could have such a breaker panel divvy up those 100A across devices, 00:14:03.353 --> 00:14:11.278 keeping you from ever exceeding the limit, and all while prioritizing active circuits so you don’t even realize that’s happening. 00:14:11.549 --> 00:14:14.907 Span is one company offering smart load centers 00:14:14.907 --> 00:14:17.481 (that’s the technical term for breaker panel). 00:14:17.481 --> 00:14:21.535 They’re not paying me to talk about them, I was connected to them via a fan of the channel, 00:14:21.535 --> 00:14:28.535 but I did have a conversation to discuss the details of their product so I could better understand what it does and how people use it. 00:14:28.535 --> 00:14:31.773 At its core it's a breaker box like any other, 00:14:31.773 --> 00:14:38.965 in fact it even uses standard circuit breakers which remain the protective devices and allow for manual circuit isolation. 00:14:38.965 --> 00:14:44.817 But behind each circuit lies an additional switching device that the panel can control. 00:14:44.817 --> 00:14:53.734 Plus, it monitors power at the individual circuit level, allowing you to determine exactly how much power is being drawn and where it’s going. 00:14:53.734 --> 00:15:00.238 Right now, Span’s main customers are folks interested in things like solar energy and battery storage integration 00:15:00.238 --> 00:15:06.936 who want to be able to track and optimize their energy production and use with the data the panel can provide. 00:15:06.936 --> 00:15:08.278 So, in other words, 00:15:08.278 --> 00:15:09.491 nerds! 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:13.084 I say that with affection, of course, because that very much includes me. 00:15:13.084 --> 00:15:14.448 That’s very cool! 00:15:14.448 --> 00:15:22.797 But, part of that optimization is identifying low-priority circuits so they can be disabled in times of energy scarcity. 00:15:22.797 --> 00:15:30.349 That can extend your runtime when operating on stored energy, and thus lower the amount of storage you need in the first place. 00:15:30.349 --> 00:15:36.625 But not everyone is a well-off energy nerd who can afford solar panels, batteries, inverters, and all that jazz. 00:15:36.625 --> 00:15:45.986 Most of us rely on the plain ol’ grid, and what excites me most about Span and products like it is that they can eliminate the expense of a service upgrade 00:15:45.986 --> 00:15:51.373 and bring complete electrification to far more people with far less work. 00:15:51.373 --> 00:15:58.971 Now I know not everyone will love the idea of smartifying your breaker box, but before you dismiss it let me illustrate the potential. 00:15:58.971 --> 00:16:04.654 Say you’ve got conventional electric everything — let’s even throw a 30A car charger in the garage 00:16:04.654 --> 00:16:07.169 — but you’ve only got 100A service. 00:16:07.169 --> 00:16:12.415 Conventional wisdom says this is a terrible idea and you’ll be tripping the main breaker constantly. 00:16:12.415 --> 00:16:16.969 But if you assign priority levels to each of those high-draw appliances, 00:16:16.969 --> 00:16:24.440 a smart panel can prevent lower-priority devices from running when others are in use and eliminate that problem. 00:16:24.440 --> 00:16:26.374 Let’s say you arrange it like this: 00:16:26.374 --> 00:16:29.329 Your HVAC system always takes priority. 00:16:29.329 --> 00:16:33.082 Next is your stove. Then your dryer. Then your water heater. 00:16:33.082 --> 00:16:34.914 And finally, your car charger. 00:16:34.914 --> 00:16:37.298 That would be my recommendation, I think. 00:16:37.298 --> 00:16:44.593 With the panel constantly monitoring the total draw on your system, a hypothetical cold winter evening might look like this: 00:16:44.593 --> 00:16:52.283 Your heat pump is running hard and combined with all the other low-power draws in your home you’re drawing 40 amps from the grid. 00:16:52.283 --> 00:16:58.256 You start making dinner, and switching on the oven plus a burner on the stove brings that up to 60 amps. 00:16:58.256 --> 00:17:05.033 At this point, since another large load like the microwave, water heater, or even just another cooktop burner might appear, 00:17:05.033 --> 00:17:08.562 your panel preemptively disables the car charger. 00:17:08.562 --> 00:17:10.949 You probably weren’t even charging the car anyway 00:17:10.949 --> 00:17:13.861 but we don’t want a surprise 30A showing up right now. 00:17:14.534 --> 00:17:19.502 So now, let’s say someone else in your home decides to start laundry while you’re cooking. 00:17:19.502 --> 00:17:23.288 Adding the dryer to the mix while cooking a meal with the heat running 00:17:23.288 --> 00:17:27.975 pushes you up to 80 amps - and at this point your panel takes further action, 00:17:27.975 --> 00:17:30.494 temporarily disabling the water heater. 00:17:30.494 --> 00:17:35.401 Which, by the way, is a perfect load to kill as even if it stays off for several hours, 00:17:35.401 --> 00:17:39.959 the water in the tank will stay piping hot and you can still use it as you please. 00:17:39.959 --> 00:17:43.866 It’s literally a battery, just a hot and wet one. 00:17:43.866 --> 00:17:50.563 Once you’re done cooking, the panel recognizes the load from the stove has dropped off so it re-enables the water heater, 00:17:50.563 --> 00:17:53.768 re-charging that wet-hot battery (if needed). 00:17:53.768 --> 00:18:00.661 The car charger remains locked-out, though, as the higher-priority dryer is still in-use and the heat is still running. 00:18:00.661 --> 00:18:04.428 Once the laundry's done, though, your car is free to charge again. 00:18:04.428 --> 00:18:06.481 I hope you see the potential here. 00:18:06.481 --> 00:18:11.790 This hypothetical home would have been at risk of tripping the main breaker, which is never fun, 00:18:11.790 --> 00:18:16.117 but disabling lower-priority loads prevented that from happening. 00:18:16.117 --> 00:18:22.719 Your breaker box can be more than just an energy distribution device — it can be a command center, too. 00:18:22.719 --> 00:18:29.069 And all throughout this scenario it could send alerts to you to inform you of what exactly it’s doing. 00:18:29.069 --> 00:18:34.152 Plus, with deeper integration with appliances, we don’t even need to go all-or-nothing. 00:18:34.152 --> 00:18:43.332 As a matter of fact, Span offers an intelligent EVSE, or car charger, that can offer charging speeds as high as 48 amps when possible, 00:18:43.332 --> 00:18:48.000 and dynamically lower output when other demands in your home increase. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:53.185 So maybe you can’t charge quite so fast when you're cooking dinner, but you can still be charging. 00:18:53.185 --> 00:18:56.143 There’s still a lot more potential here, though. 00:18:56.143 --> 00:19:02.478 Span and products like it are connected to the internet — though real quick they don’t necessarily have to be! 00:19:02.478 --> 00:19:06.840 I know plenty of folks will scoff at that and I brought this up in my conversation with Span. 00:19:06.840 --> 00:19:09.723 I’m leery of it being online myself. 00:19:09.723 --> 00:19:14.750 I expect we’ll eventually see some sort of local configuration option which is set-and-forget. 00:19:14.750 --> 00:19:16.481 Details TBD. 00:19:16.481 --> 00:19:19.713 However, remote monitoring can be quite useful. 00:19:19.713 --> 00:19:23.912 For instance, it could tell you something is wrong with your heat while you're away. 00:19:23.912 --> 00:19:31.688 And with the proper incentives and permissions, a smart panel could also be an important strategy in so-called virtual power plants, 00:19:31.688 --> 00:19:39.765 which allow utilities to manage and balance power needs by, say, commanding water heaters to switch on when there’s excess power on the grid, 00:19:39.765 --> 00:19:47.610 or reduce demand in power emergencies in a more delicate fashion than “just shut entire neighborhoods off.” 00:19:47.610 --> 00:19:53.103 But that’s largely future stuff, and may I remind you before you write in with your dystopian hot takes, 00:19:53.103 --> 00:19:55.941 remember I said with proper permissions. 00:19:55.941 --> 00:19:59.574 I hear you, and understand you, but let’s be reasonable. 00:19:59.574 --> 00:20:02.201 Working together has some benefits, y’know. 00:20:02.201 --> 00:20:07.519 Now, energy-managing load centers like Span are creating something of a new frontier. 00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:14.976 Electricians might look at you like you have three heads if you say "I want to install one of these so I can get electric everything with 100A service!" 00:20:14.976 --> 00:20:16.458 And that’s understandable. 00:20:16.458 --> 00:20:23.648 Electric codes dictate that load calculations be done to determine the minimum service level for a home based on what’s in it, 00:20:23.648 --> 00:20:31.049 and old calculations will generally not result in 100A being OK for an all-electric home. 00:20:31.049 --> 00:20:37.095 But the good news is that the code is adapting to these new load-side management solutions. 00:20:37.095 --> 00:20:44.349 It may take some time for knowledge of the solutions to spread to permitting offices, utilities, and other regulatory bodies, though, 00:20:44.349 --> 00:20:46.236 so that’s something to keep in mind. 00:20:46.236 --> 00:20:48.113 And hopefully I’m helping! 00:20:48.113 --> 00:20:53.755 Also something to be aware of is that if you’re looking to make any of the changes we’ve discussed so far, 00:20:53.755 --> 00:20:56.044 there may be incentives to do so. 00:20:56.044 --> 00:21:02.937 That might be in the form of a rebate or a tax incentive, and that’ll vary depending on where you are and what else you might be doing. 00:21:02.937 --> 00:21:08.695 You’ll definitely want to consult with someone who knows those particulars, and for the record that is not me! 00:21:08.695 --> 00:21:11.450 But I don’t want you to leave money on the table. 00:21:11.450 --> 00:21:16.846 And finally, let’s now get into the weeds of the tricky thing that is building heat. 00:21:16.846 --> 00:21:21.378 Dryers, water heaters, and stoves can all easily be managed and installed 00:21:21.378 --> 00:21:27.179 as they’re just single objects without too much variation from home-to-home and climate-to-climate. 00:21:27.179 --> 00:21:34.276 But what heats your home can be any number of things and also depends on the size, age, and condition of your home. 00:21:34.276 --> 00:21:37.398 And let me start with that - I’ve said it before in other videos, 00:21:37.398 --> 00:21:44.791 but a key thing we need to be doing is building envelope upgrades to reduce the need for heating and cooling energy in the first place. 00:21:44.791 --> 00:21:50.325 More insulation and better windows and doors will go hand-in-hand with building electrification, 00:21:50.325 --> 00:21:54.534 as the less heating and cooling you need, the easier it is. 00:21:54.534 --> 00:21:59.827 Luckily some incentives are starting to roll out which you should look into if they’ll be helpful for you, 00:21:59.827 --> 00:22:05.817 but for the purposes of this video, we’ll assume your home is already reasonably well-insulated. 00:22:05.909 --> 00:22:07.686 Now there is one thing I know for sure, 00:22:07.686 --> 00:22:12.105 and that is that what you’re gonna need to efficiently heat your home with electricity 00:22:12.105 --> 00:22:13.469 is a heat pump! 00:22:13.469 --> 00:22:21.422 With one of those bad boys you can spend 3 kW of power running the pump and get 9 or even 12 kW of heat energy out of it. 00:22:21.422 --> 00:22:26.133 They're the closest thing we have to free energy and that’s why they’re cool as beans. 00:22:26.133 --> 00:22:29.899 Check out this video of mine if you want to know how exactly they work. 00:22:29.899 --> 00:22:36.719 But what precisely getting a heat pump will look like depends a lot on what currently heats your home. 00:22:36.719 --> 00:22:41.264 If you have a forced-air furnace, you’re probably in an ideal situation. 00:22:41.264 --> 00:22:47.425 Especially if you currently have central air conditioning, because that means you already have a heat pump! 00:22:47.425 --> 00:22:52.328 It might only pump one way because why spend the $50 on a reversing valve when gas is cheap? 00:22:52.328 --> 00:22:57.321 But you’ve got a 240V circuit already going to the outdoor condensing unit. 00:22:57.321 --> 00:23:03.708 That’s a huge leg-up and there’s tons of housing here in the US set up precisely this way. 00:23:03.708 --> 00:23:04.893 That’s good. 00:23:04.893 --> 00:23:12.156 Even gooder is that cold-climate air-source heat pumps continue to get better at operating in frigid temperatures. 00:23:12.156 --> 00:23:18.490 Heat pumps that work effectively below -10°F are just around the corner from domestic manufactures, 00:23:18.490 --> 00:23:22.212 and, uh, already here from Asian manufacturers 00:23:22.212 --> 00:23:25.595 but nobody tell the likes of Carrier or Lennox, it might hurt their feelings. 00:23:25.595 --> 00:23:33.854 Anyway, once those are commonly available, the same circuit that currently runs your air conditioning can also run your heat. 00:23:33.854 --> 00:23:39.396 It may need to be bumped up in size depending on your specific situation and heating needs, though. 00:23:39.396 --> 00:23:45.146 The more daunting challenge for electrification is how to manage resistive backup heat. 00:23:45.146 --> 00:23:52.891 When it gets so extremely cold that a heat pump can’t work effectively, or even just to provide backup in the case of a mechanical issue, 00:23:52.891 --> 00:23:56.433 good ol’ fashioned heating elements will step in. 00:23:56.433 --> 00:24:00.869 That could be as simple as some space heaters strategically placed around your home, 00:24:00.869 --> 00:24:04.233 but most people appreciate a more permanent option. 00:24:04.233 --> 00:24:10.432 In a home with ducted, forced-air heating, so-called heat strips in the air handler can switch on when needed 00:24:10.432 --> 00:24:14.391 turning that air handler into a giant hair dryer. 00:24:14.391 --> 00:24:19.451 There’s just two problems: first, well there’s another circuit you'll need to run. 00:24:19.451 --> 00:24:22.564 Your furnace has graduated and needs more juice. 00:24:22.564 --> 00:24:26.985 And second, it might need a LOT of juice. 00:24:26.985 --> 00:24:32.100 In a large home, the heat strips might suck down 20 kilowatts. 00:24:32.100 --> 00:24:34.397 That’s 83 amps right there. 00:24:34.397 --> 00:24:36.046 In one thing. 00:24:36.046 --> 00:24:42.295 However, and I cannot stress this enough, heat strips are rarely needed when you have a heat pump. 00:24:42.295 --> 00:24:49.754 Already in many climates they’re basically only there to aid in defrosting the heat pump and to provide a backup in case the heat pump fails - 00:24:49.754 --> 00:24:54.518 in fact many thermostats will refer to heat strips as “emergency heat.” 00:24:54.518 --> 00:25:00.975 And if you live somewhere it hardly ever dips below freezing, you can probably just skip them altogether. 00:25:00.975 --> 00:25:08.736 So the heat strips are not something we should expect to operate frequently and as heat pumps develop and get better at working in extreme cold, 00:25:08.736 --> 00:25:11.555 they’ll become less and less necessary. 00:25:11.555 --> 00:25:15.289 Resistive backup heat is just that - a backup. 00:25:15.289 --> 00:25:18.133 Keep that in mind as we continue with this discussion. 00:25:18.133 --> 00:25:22.947 Of course, we still need to plan for having that backup but, hot take 00:25:22.947 --> 00:25:32.140 20 kilowatts of heat strips is probably rarely necessary, especially if we do insulation retrofits like we absolutely should. 00:25:32.140 --> 00:25:39.219 As a piece of anecdata, my mom and dad live in a pretty large four-bedroom ranch-style home that’s about 15 years old. 00:25:39.219 --> 00:25:44.251 Including the finished basement, they have 3,500 square feet of conditioned space. 00:25:44.251 --> 00:25:45.588 A decent chunk. 00:25:45.588 --> 00:25:50.793 And their house is all-electric, but for some silly reason they don't have a heat pump. 00:25:50.793 --> 00:25:58.928 They have entirely resistive heat, and what they call the “furnace” is really an extremely cheap air handler with a contactor for its blower motor 00:25:58.928 --> 00:26:01.571 and two beefy contactors for the heat strips. 00:26:01.571 --> 00:26:07.011 The thing's hilarious, it has no logic circuitry in it at all, the thermostat is the only control mechanism 00:26:07.011 --> 00:26:11.933 and when it calls for heat there’s a big “THUNK” and then the lights get a bit dimmer and it delights me in its crudeness! 00:26:12.716 --> 00:26:17.483 Anyway, the heat strips in their air handler are indeed of the 20 kilowatt flavor. 00:26:17.483 --> 00:26:20.755 See, there’s two 10 kilowatt doodads in there. 00:26:20.755 --> 00:26:26.964 But even when it’s extremely cold outside, their home has no trouble at all staying warm. 00:26:26.964 --> 00:26:35.827 Over this past Christmas it was stupid cold and pretty windy, and on December 23rd it never even broke zero degrees Fahrenheit outside. 00:26:35.827 --> 00:26:43.538 Yet, even keeping the interior a comfortable 68 degrees, the thermostat only called for heat for 15 hours. 00:26:43.538 --> 00:26:48.919 Yes, that’s a lot, but clearly they’ve got a huge margin for error. 00:26:48.919 --> 00:26:54.279 They’d be completely fine and still have some margin left with only 15 kW of heat strips. 00:26:54.701 --> 00:26:58.199 And as it turns out, that’s exactly what they have! 00:26:58.199 --> 00:27:05.825 Each 10 kW heat strip unit is actually made of two 5 kW heating elements, and one of them happens to be burnt out, 00:27:05.825 --> 00:27:08.826 meaning they really only have 15 kW 00:27:08.826 --> 00:27:11.181 and that’s been the case for who knows how long. 00:27:11.181 --> 00:27:13.358 But wait! There’s less! 00:27:13.358 --> 00:27:19.132 Those heat strips are constantly cycling on and off thanks to a limit switch whenever the heat's running. 00:27:19.132 --> 00:27:27.729 I don’t know if that’s normal behavior or if their blower speed is set too low or something but each one is only on about ⅔ of the time. 00:27:27.729 --> 00:27:33.477 So in reality, their home only has ⅔ of ¾ of 20 kW. 00:27:33.477 --> 00:27:35.950 Or 10 kW of heat output. 00:27:35.950 --> 00:27:42.815 And that 10 kW was only needed for 15 of 24 hours on an extremely cold day. 00:27:42.815 --> 00:27:47.863 Yeah, their home is fairly new and well-insulated, but it’s also no passive house. 00:27:47.863 --> 00:27:53.146 They’ve got old-fashioned double-hung windows everywhere and other than some extra attic insulation, 00:27:53.146 --> 00:27:56.722 the house is basically just built to the code minimums of the day. 00:27:56.722 --> 00:28:03.642 Yet we know exactly how much heat output it actually needs to stay warm in the coldest weather we get, 00:28:03.642 --> 00:28:05.744 and it’s nowhere near 20 kW. 00:28:05.744 --> 00:28:08.964 It’s actually more like… six or eight tops. 00:28:08.964 --> 00:28:14.460 By the way, this sort of data-logging is a really valuable thing smart thermostats provide. 00:28:14.460 --> 00:28:18.368 You can use it to find out just how oversized your heating system is, 00:28:18.368 --> 00:28:22.046 which around here they almost always seem to be by a factor of 2. 00:28:22.046 --> 00:28:25.116 But anyway, circling back to the smart breaker panel, 00:28:25.116 --> 00:28:28.775 even if you truly need some big ol’ heat strips for your home 00:28:28.775 --> 00:28:34.488 (which again, I cannot stress this enough, that should only ever be necessary on rare occasions) 00:28:34.488 --> 00:28:38.945 Well, we can still manage that load so long as we’re clever about it. 00:28:38.945 --> 00:28:46.708 Say we had 15 kw of heat strips and the smart breaker panel that could power-limit them in chunks of 5 kilowatts. 00:28:46.708 --> 00:28:53.210 That would mean that should you need to, you can throttle the heat output rather than just shut it off entirely. 00:28:53.210 --> 00:28:58.067 So when other loads like the water heater or stove threaten to push you over 100A, 00:28:58.067 --> 00:29:04.761 we can just knock off 20A from the air handler which will reduce output slightly but still provide you with heat. 00:29:04.761 --> 00:29:09.639 And of course when those other loads disappear, we can send the full amount back to the air handler. 00:29:10.480 --> 00:29:16.257 We like to pretend 100A is not a lot of power but folks - it really is. 00:29:16.257 --> 00:29:18.322 We just have to use it wisely. 00:29:18.322 --> 00:29:26.159 So far, I’ve been talking about what homes that currently use forced-air furnaces and central air conditioning will need to do to electrify themselves. 00:29:26.159 --> 00:29:30.655 That’s a huge amount of housing here, but it’s definitely not universal. 00:29:30.655 --> 00:29:37.673 You might have a boiler which makes water hot and pumps that around to radiators throughout your home or perhaps an in-floor heating system, 00:29:37.673 --> 00:29:42.053 and that might also produce domestic hot water for bathing, too. 00:29:42.053 --> 00:29:47.444 There are heat pumps which are designed to replace boilers, but they’ll be a bit more work. 00:29:47.444 --> 00:29:52.355 You’ll need to run a new circuit to an outdoor unit, plus new plumbing and whatnot. 00:29:52.355 --> 00:30:00.620 And if that’s the situation you’re in, you may want to look into ductless mini-splits which can also provide cooling in the warm months. 00:30:00.620 --> 00:30:03.473 As far as what you’ll do for your backup emergency heat... 00:30:03.473 --> 00:30:05.634 ah, I’ll let you be creative. 00:30:05.634 --> 00:30:09.882 We’re pushing into half-hour territory but there’s still a lot more to talk about. 00:30:09.882 --> 00:30:16.270 So far I’ve discussed what it would take to swap your conventional gas stuff for conventional electric stuff, 00:30:16.270 --> 00:30:21.660 and how we can use energy management to make that possible with limited electrical supplies. 00:30:21.660 --> 00:30:23.753 But that’s still a lot of work. 00:30:23.753 --> 00:30:29.882 Thanks to the miracles of heat pumps and batteries, though, we can avoid much of that work. 00:30:29.882 --> 00:30:36.157 In part two, I’ll talk about heat pump water heaters, clothes dryers, and stoves with batteries. 00:30:36.157 --> 00:30:39.761 We’ll also discuss options for dealing with power outages. 00:30:39.761 --> 00:30:44.421 There will be a clicky thing popping up right about now which’ll take you there once it’s ready. 00:30:44.421 --> 00:30:47.333 But for now, thanks for watching. 00:30:48.377 --> 00:30:50.935 ♫ divvied-up smooth jazz ♫ 00:30:53.134 --> 00:30:55.634 Just those three devices pulled per… 00:30:57.200 --> 00:30:57.892 Nyyaaagh! 00:30:57.892 --> 00:30:59.237 But hang on a minute. 00:30:59.237 --> 00:31:00.472 But hang on. 00:31:00.472 --> 00:31:02.285 But hold your horses. 00:31:02.285 --> 00:31:03.442 But hang on, though. 00:31:03.442 --> 00:31:04.594 [laughs] 00:31:06.653 --> 00:31:10.559 OoohhhHHHHhHHHHHhhH 00:31:10.559 --> 00:31:13.626 OoohhhHHHHHHHhhH 00:31:13.626 --> 00:31:16.504 OoohhHHhHHHHHhhH 00:31:16.504 --> 00:31:19.783 Your HVAC system always takes priorit[eh] 00:31:19.783 --> 00:31:23.975 … why am I running out of vocalization before the end of “priority?” 00:31:23.975 --> 00:31:26.741 Your HVAC system always takes priorit[eh] 00:31:27.611 --> 00:31:28.852 Why is that happening? 00:31:29.577 --> 00:31:30.156 Priorit[eh] 00:31:30.417 --> 00:31:35.405 …thing we need to be doing is building envelope upgrades to reduce the need - should I keep that in? 00:31:35.405 --> 00:31:36.608 I’ll start over. 00:31:38.203 --> 00:31:43.472 So one of my favorite things about electricity is playing around with load limits and things like we've been talking about here. 00:31:43.472 --> 00:31:46.622 It's helpful not only in the individual home, but also to the broader grid. 00:31:46.622 --> 00:31:50.487 The more we can spread periods of high-demand out, the easier managing everything becomes. 00:31:50.487 --> 00:31:52.360 There's a lot of.... 00:31:52.360 --> 00:31:53.444 potential there.