Electrify Everything
Saul Griffith and Sam Calisch
Stop using fossil fuels and make money for every American household
Many people want to do something personal to contribute to climate solutions, but don’t know what that is. In this project, we detail the process of decarbonizing a household and use historical data and current technology to build a cost model for the process. What we learn is that if we do it right — without any heroic new technology — we can start saving thousands of dollars per household, and billions of dollars per state, every year, while addressing almost half of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Scroll to see how we can electrify, today.
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Scroll to see how we can electrify, today.
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Our homes, our carbon
42% of energy emissions come from decisions we control in our households.
With a few changes to this home infrastructure, we can eliminate these emissions completely.
Using existing technology, we can run our homes on 100% decarbonized electricity.
And if we do it right, save a bunch of money in the process.
Current energy expenditures
Today, energy is a significant part of the average U.S. household budget.
We currently spend more on electricity than education...
More on natural gas than dentistry...
And more on gasoline than meat, poultry, fish, fruits, and vegetables...combined.
Costs are falling, fast.
The technology required for decarbonization used to be expensive, but has gotten exponentially cheaper, year after year.
These prices will continue to fall if we make the commitment to scaling renewables.
Mapping it all out
more spending ⟶
We can see current energy expenditures on this map, with high costs in regions with large heating bills, lots of driving, or expensive fuels. The average household spends about $4,500 per year on gasoline, natural gas, electricity, and fuel oil.
Converting to electric is possible today, but is an expensive proposition for a single household, especially for those with big energy needs. Under business as usual, the average household would pay an extra $5,000 per year to cut out fossil fuels.
With key changes to building codes, regulations, financing, and the electricity market, however, the economics can be flipped. Under these conditions, the average American household can actually save about $1,200 by going electric.
If we add industrial scale, and lower, federally-guaranteed interest rates, people would be saving money in every zip-code. The average household saves $2,500, and some over $4,000.
What about jobs?
This household transformation will also create about 7.7 million new jobs across the U.S.