A new paradigm in home heating and cooling, and its reflection of the energy transition
Re: The article by Z. O. Gephardt, P.E. and R. D. Turner in the October 2024 issue of CEP, “Energy Transitions: Insights from the Past, Solutions for the Future” (pp. 45–51).
In the section, “Housing,” the authors appear to place significant emphasis on all-electric homes that were built in the 1950s, and offer several reasons why these homes were “attractive to young families” and why these homes were built in an energy-inefficient manner. The authors also state that “these inefficiencies were neither understood nor experienced” and these energy inefficiencies were accepted. However, the authors omit several important facts and did not provide the rest of the history of the evolution of residential home energy efficiency in both new and existing homes.
First, the electrification of residential homes in the U.S. was well underway by the end of World War II. Electric appliances provided enough labor savings and other advantages for consumers to buy them without special incentives. Electricity also enabled the later commercialization of forced-air natural gas and oil heating systems which had many advantages vs. coal and wood heating systems and baseboard natural convection heating technology. Incentives from the government and consumer appliance manufacturers might have accelerated the use of electric appliances, but were not the primary reasons for the transition from manual labor to electric appliances.
Second, the all-electric home, as defined by the authors on page 49, only achieved 8% penetration of the U.S. home market (1) and then declined to 2% by the end of the last century. (These figures exclude electric heat pump technology, which in the southern U.S. provided a very cost-effective method to both heat and cool homes.) The actual situation starting in the 1950s was natural gas, oil, and electricity competing for home heating systems, and gas and electricity also competing for stoves, water heaters, and clothes dryers. By the end of the 1970s, the economic advantage of natural gas and oil heating technologies vs. electric heating in colder climates was clearly established.
Third, and as the authors state, energy-inefficient homes were built in the 1950s and 1960s to make housing affordable to more...
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