AgdaPkt 2020-01-13 Joint - Laserfiche WebLink

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Today I want to focus on Reach Codes for New Construction. I'm a mechanical engineer, renewable generation consultant and building electrification consultant, as well as an Environmental Quality Commissioner in Menlo Park, sharing my thoughts just as a fellow climate - dependent human. A strong All -Electric reach code is the most transformative type and easiest to administer as plan -checking and building inspection are simplified without having to "assure" safety on combustion systems and combustion air supply and carbon monoxide dilution etc. As an early -mover designing our Menlo Park Reach code before Berkeley or any other cities pursued outright gas pipe bans, our staff sought a compromise that was to eliminate about 90% of the gas use in new homes by requiring that the homes use efficient electric heat pumps for space heat and water heat. This still allows old - school fossil cooks to install fossil pipes to their stoves and fireplaces if they want. I hope most builders skip the expense of polluting their indoor air and opt for the cleaner, faster, more precise and controllable induction magnetic cooking now available. Menlo Park also compromised when it gave itself the ironic exemption of allowing dangerous gas hookups to emergency gathering facilities where people may gather after a quake damages gas lines. I suspect they won't exercise this option to build danger into their next safety facility. They also compromised when they allowed bioscience facilities (that want to maintain lab temperatures during winter power outages ) to apply for exemptions if they can show that heat pumps powered by their already planned backup generators combined with exhaust ventilation heat recovery will be insufficient to reliably keep their experiments running in a winter outage. And there is an appeal process for new buildings that will have restaurants that feel their cooks and food should be subject to gas combustion processes and byproducts rather than using the clean, safe, fast, precise electric alternatives adopted by many leading chefs. An area we have already started returning to is remodels and additions to prevent the stranding of new environmentally obsolete gas equipment in those projects as well. I recommend including Remodels and additions in your Reach Code (essentially any general contractor project in conditioned space requiring a building permit). A strong electric reach code like ours or even stronger like Mountain View's that requires clean cooking will help transform the new construction market and that will help transform the retrofit market. The further we go now, the less we have to replace as things get serious. Thank you for considering these lessons I've learned as we try to follow the worldwide scientists' IPCC advice to make greenhouse gas reduction policies that are: Rapid, Far -Reaching and Unprecedented Yours in decarbonizing, Tom Kabat The prudent speed of climate preservation is Full Speed.