This is the second article in a two-part series on home electrification. Read the first article.
Barry Cinnamon, a longtime Silicon Valley solar entrepreneur CEO Rafael Rafael, founder of Cinnamon Energy Systems, is a big proponent of all-electric homes. He’s investing in converting his home’s heating and cooking—and the car he drives—to electricity provided by solar panels, batteries, and the grid.
Cinnamon identified a number of challenges to going all-electric — getting the latest, most efficient air and water heaters, finding contractors familiar with the technology and techniques needed to install them, and combining various rebates and incentives to help defray the high costs involved.
But one of the biggest potential hurdles is hidden from the sight and mind of the average homeowner: the electrical panel. These ubiquitous metal boxes filled with circuit breakers are the conduits that connect your home’s electrical circuits to the power flowing from the power grid.
If they aren’t powerful enough to power the heaters, appliances or electric car chargers you’re considering as part of your home electrification project, replacing them with panels that can handle the task can add thousands of dollars and weeks to months of extra work.
If the wiring connecting the utility grid to the home needs to be upgraded as part of that process — which sometimes happens, since home electrical panels are often sized to fit the utility service — the cost and time involved rises dramatically, he said.
Cinnamon estimates the average homeowner expense in its Northern California service area as follows: “If you are planning to upgrade your electrical service from 100 Ampere to 200 The amps, and the above ground wiring, are probably $100.5,000 To $10,000“To purchase and install a new electrical panel, obtain an electrical permit from the city, and coordinate with the local utility company,” he said. ““Three to six months.” If the house is connected to underground power lines, which is common in modern, urban homes, “It’s a dollar.25,000 “To dig up the street and put that in, it takes a year.”
Cost and time estimates may be lower in other parts of the country. Nate Adams, a well-known home electrical contractor and consultant, said upgrading 100– Ampere circuit board to 200An amp panel, capable of powering cold-climate home electrical projects like the ones he does in the Midwest, can cost between $100 and $2,000.3,000 And $6,000Pecan Street, a nonprofit research organization based in Austin, Texas, comes up with a lower estimate of1,000 To $5,000 To upgrade the panel without upgrading the utility service, which she said could take several weeks to complete.
Regardless of local specifics, upgrading electrical panels and utility services can make or break home electrification projects. Few homeowners are willing to wait weeks or months to replace broken natural gas furnaces or water heaters with electric heat pump models, Cinnamon says. And even those who planned to go all-electric long ago may balk at the time and cost involved.
This is a big problem for 48 A recent report by Pecan Street estimates that 1 million homes lack enough electricity to go fully electric. At an average cost of $100 million2,000 For each upgrade, this adds up to: “As much as a dollar100 “A billion dollars is a barrier to residential electrification in America,” the report says — and2,000 The cost of living per home is at the lowest of estimates.
That’s why a number of home electrical contractors are looking to new technologies from startups and major electrical equipment manufacturers that can help solve these bottlenecks in electrical distribution panels. Options range from relatively simple plugs that can safely split the demands of major electrical loads, to fully digital electrical distribution panels and circuit breakers that offer Wi-Fi connectivity and active control of electrical value Chargers, batteries and other major electrical assets.
Simple circuit switching devices for controlling large loads
One such tool is SimpleSwitch, a wired device. “A “circuit sharing plug” that connects two separate loads – electrical value Charger and heat pump, for example – in one device. 240A single volt circuit. Then it prevents both loads from consuming power at the same time.
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the public utility serving California’s capital city and surrounding areas, is promoting the use of SimpleSwitch devices by its customers. As an electric-only utility, Smood It has designed pricing structures and provided incentives and discounts to convert customers to electric appliances and heating systems to help reduce carbon emissions.
This saves money for both customers and facilities. Smood The total cost of the facilities is estimated at approximately $100 million.4,725 On average, the company replaces electrical panels and adds electrical circuits for customers who are part of the Low-Income Electrification Program, for up to $100.9,000 For modifications involving underground distribution lines or other complications.
Sean Armstrong, managing director of Redwood Energy, a California-based all-electric home developer, describes SimpleSwitch and similar devices designed to support electrical value Chargers, such as NeoCharge, Dryer Buddy, and Splitvolt, as the equivalent of a home power strip. 240– Devices with voltages up to 100 volts. They allow more loads to be connected in the home than the existing electrical panel can handle.
While SimpleSwitch is hard-programmed to keep one primary load on and shut off a secondary load when it exceeds the circuit’s capacity, other devices come with software controls that can be programmed to favor one load over another based on variables like relative load share or time of day or week. These devices cost a few hundred dollars—much less than the several thousand dollars that might be required to replace a panel. Redwood Energy’s Pocket Guide to All-Electric Retrofits outlines some of the options.
Whether these types of common circuit receptacles can keep the loads in an electrification project low enough to avoid the need for a panel upgrade depends on the type of work being done, Armstrong said. The National Electrical Code, which governs electrical work in all 50 The United States requires that electrical panels be sized to support the maximum simultaneous draw of each load connected to them, but it primarily applies to “Wired “systems” that do not plug into electrical outlets.
““If you’re doing renovations, these plug-in appliances are pretty much standard,” Armstrong said. But there are different standards for new construction than for renovations.
Smart electrical panels
However, Cinnamon cautioned that there are limits to how far the circuit split can go. Customers who combine rooftop solar with batteries, electrical value Smart charging appliances and other devices will likely need to upgrade the board – and they may want to “A smart “electrical panel” can help them manage all this equipment efficiently.
Once rooftop solar enters the picture, “You definitely need to upgrade to 200 “This is not the case on a large scale, but it is a view that is largely supported by solar builders and electricians, as many households that install solar panels will find themselves outgrowing the capacity of smaller panels and may have plans to power more homes and buy electric vehicles,” he said.
Adding a battery to a rooftop solar system adds complexity, Cinnamon added. Most homeowners buy batteries as backup power during a power outage, but a typical residential battery system doesn’t provide enough power to run an entire home for an extended period of time. Customers who want to run critical systems like refrigerators, heaters or medical devices either need to turn off anything else that might drain the battery or plug those critical devices in separately, a task that requires additional equipment and expensive man-hours by an electrician.
To solve this problem, a new class of smart panels and similar devices has emerged on the market over the past few years. Two of the country’s largest panel makers, Schneider Electric and Eaton, have unveiled such products: Schneider’s Square D panel has digital controls built into the panel itself, while Eaton integrates them into the circuit breakers inside the panel. Armstrong also mentioned Canada’s Cobain’s Genius smart panel, which Redwood Energy is studying for its potential to use plug-in electric vehicles to support household loads during power outages.
San Francisco-based smart panel startup Span is pursuing a similar path with Sunrun, the nation’s leading home solar installer. In October, the companies announced a partnership to use Span panels in select markets, giving Sunrun customers the ability to choose between solar, battery or grid-powered home circuits. Span panels connect to the cloud via Wi-Fi, so owners can control them through a web or mobile app.
