AgdaPkt 2019-10-28 Joint SA PFA - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

I am a licensed architect and HVAC designer, and I consult on a full range of building types. I have been designing all -electric homes with induction cooking since 2009. Why the urgency to do this now? • New Title -24 code cycle takes effect 1/1/20 • New Energy Code removes all barriers to compliance for electric -only homes • Just in the last 10 years, the California electric grid is increasingly clean ---35% renewables in 2019 and —100% by 2045. Yet we still risk our health & safety by burning gas for heat, at greater cost & risk to ourselves than alternatives • Electric heat pumps have leaped inefficiency over the last 10 years, now 300-500% efficient. Electric heat pumps are now at operating -cost parity with gas. If all -electric buildings are less expensive to build than gas buildings, why aren't developers doing this already? We can ask similarly, if not -smoking is so much cheaper and healthier, why do people still smoke? Developers are conservative and therefore backward -facing; the market looking backward prefers gas; however, market sentiment is a lagging indicator, and we need to acknowledge that CA early adopters have already shifted to electric: HVAC, cooking, laundry This is an easy win for the Council: you can take credit for reduced housing/construction costs, while improving health, safety, and climate protection in your city Science -based targets say we need to cut fossil fuel combustion to zero by 2045, to have a chance of preserving life on earth as we know it: A prohibition on gas piping is a politically easy move, literally the least of what needs to be done The Council needs to start somewhere; a gas ban has precedent in 11 other local jurisdictions; this is now consensus among policy makers. AIA architects are bound by their professional ethics code to cease the use of fossil fuels "The AIA prioritizes and supports urgent climate action as a health, safety, and welfare issue, to exponentially accelerate the "decarbonization" of buildings, the building sector, and the built environment. " (https://www.buildinggreen.com/sites/default/files/AIA%2OResolution%20on%2OClimate%20Action- final.pdf) If Council needs support from the AIA for a gas ban, please reach out to me and other local AIA architects. "AIA will partner with policymakers and allies to expedite policy and practice resources that effectively address climate change." (https://www.aia.org/resources/77541-where-we-stand-climate- change) I want to echo the points made by Aimee Bailey, Ph.D., because they are excellent: * All -electric new construction costs less than building with gas. There's significant savings when you do not install two separate utility connections (electric and gas). Everyone from affordable housing developers<https://www.svcleaneneryy.org/edwina-benner-plaza/> in Silicon Valley to the University of California & Stanford<his://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/califomia-universities-are-transitioning- to -all -electric -buildings> are already building all -electric, because they've researched it and know the benefits.