Sustainability and Climate-Resilient Buildings Expert; Professional Engineer; Vice President, Climate & Performance Engineering at RWDI; Co-Founder ClimateFirst Building Solutions
Two years ago, I calculated my family's Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions from home energy use and car mileage—approximately 10 tons per year. That's roughly the amount 400 trees would offset (essentially, a small forest!). Motivated to reduce our footprint, we've made significant changes: - Upgraded to electric vehicles (EVs) - Replaced our gas furnace and water heater with an electric heat pump and boiler - Installed a 10 kW solar array These low-carbon retrofits reduced our emissions by about 95%, from 10 tons to just 0.5 tons annually. This drastic drop means we've gone from needing a forest to just 20 trees to offset our emissions—a number we can comfortably plant each year. We're working towards a net positive carbon impact, tackling the comprehensive scope of our emissions, including Scope 3. We're proud of the progress and committed to continuing our efforts. Interested in how we financed these upgrades, the systems we chose, and their impact on our energy bills? I’d love to share more if there’s interest—please leave a comment or like this post. Until then - Happy Earth Day!
And your Scope 3 Mike…? ;0)
That’s pretty inspiring Mike. Seems like such a colossal undertaking. I’m in historic designated Cabbagetown, and I have to admit that it’s hard to even know where to start when a full gut isn’t an option.
Well done Mike. Great effort and commitment. how does the heat pump compare with gas furnace to keep house warm?
This is a really informative post and I love the questions below. Figuring out the tradeoffs and realistic costs are what's needed. thanks so much!
Great work Mike. I recently completed a similar transition (all electric plus solar) on my place and now have a year of data. Heat pumps (getting about 3X efficiency of my old 95% efficiency boiler) and EVs (getting about 5X efficiency on my old gas-mobile). The massive energy savings plus dropping the monthly fees just to have a gas line mean I am paying a few thousand $$ less on energy costs a year. Not to mention the 97% reduction in carbon emissions. Very much worth the transition. I am sure you will be very happy with this.
Are there any good tools out there for normies to calculate our own families footprint?
Always interested in reading another electrification journey - mine is pinned to my profile! Feels good.
Start sharing Mike, and we will drum up interest and engagement. Good work 👍🏼
Principal, Director of Design Technology @ HOK | Applied AI, Innovative Application Development & Strategies, High-performance Team Builder, Large Project Management
6moI’ll bite, Mike — 😉 even with solar to supplement you’re electricity bill is now 100x more expensive?!?? Seriously asking because I have a conventional natural gas boiler (99% efficiency, it doesn’t seem like it when I get the bill) that is super high maintenance and seems impossible to find reasonably priced service companies. Would love to go electric, but terrified of the cost. Heating water for 5 adults showering (sometimes multiple times daily), single source hydronic, and typical domestic use. Curious to know how it’s going for you .. ✌🏻