Installing a heat pump was ultimately the right choice. But switching from gas to electric was bumpier than I expected.
(José L. Soto//The Washington Post)
Guest column by Katherine Ellison
April 2, 2025
Last December, after months of worried research and work, we converted our Northern California home from gas to electric. We expected a bunch of benefits: Healthier indoor temperatures and air quality. A reduced carbon footprint. Lower energy bills.
The results have been more complicated.
For 24 years, my husband and I relied on gas to cook, clean our clothes and heat our three-bedroom house. Only recently, as summer heat waves have increased, we have realized we also need air conditioning. That’s why we decided to replace our gas-powered furnace with an electric heat pump, which, by moving warm air in or out of our house, would provide year-round comfort.
Heat pump HVAC systems have been outselling gas-burning furnaces in the United States by growing margins for the past three years, according to an industry trade group. They’ve even inspired a racy love song. The popularity is understandable. Heat pumps are up to five times as efficient as gas-burning systems and are widely billed as a way to reduce home energy bills.
I’ll come back to that (sore) point soon, but let’s first clarify that while switching to a heat pump is fairly straightforward, eliminating gas entirely is more challenging, especially considering the convoluted financing system involved. The full-scale switch remains a huge task for anyone with a job, limited up-front cash, subpar research chops or garden-variety anxiety.
That’s bound to improve, though, says Panama Bartholomy, director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition. “Switching homes to clean energy will never be harder than it is right now,” he says. “With more competition, costs will go down and the process will simplify.”
The process could surely use that, given that as much as 10 percent of global greenhouse emissions now come from heating buildings. We need to streamline, speed up and democratize a transition that is largely reserved for the wealthy and very determined.
Seductively cool — at a cost
My journey started during the historic heat wave in the summer of 2023, when I first felt some of the health effects of prolonged high temperatures.While out for a walk one day, I peeked inside a new house for sale. The indoor air was fresh and cool, courtesy of a heat pump. I returned to my own sweltering house and began exploring options.
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) had authorized $4.28 billion for a Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEEHRA) program, which began taking applications in the fall for income-adjusted rebates of up to $8,000.
We qualified for $4,000 for a heat pump, plus $1,750 for a water-heater heat pump and up to $5,500 from a separate, utility-sponsored program if we shut off gas entirely. California would kick in another $900 for the water heater, while a countywide program promised up to $1,250 if we replaced our gas-powered cooktop, furnace and water heater. We were also eligible for federal tax credits of up to $3,200 per year until 2032.
Ka-ching, right?
Kind of. Even with every available rebate, we still needed a (subsidized) loan.
Following some good advice, we chose a local industry leader as our contractor. Many HVAC companies still lack experience with new technologies and financing options, so we figured it was worth the extra cost.
Our contractor immediately proved us right by starting the project in December, right after HEEHRA rebates became available. In January, President Donald Trump froze the IRA funding, leading some states to pause distribution. California has since resumed payments. And fortunately, several local and utility-sponsored rebates remain available, as do, at least for now, the federal tax credits. (Check Rewiring America for the latest.)
The road to retrofits
Before we hired that contractor, I had already taken my first step, paying $2,079 (minus a $250 rebate) to replace our failing 20-year-old gas dryer with an electric combo washer-dryer. The new system came with a learning curve, but YouTube helped.Replacing our ancient water heater, which had started to leak gas, was another easy choice. We paid $8,721 for an installed plug-in heat pump water heater that fit in our small available space.
Our furnace was just two years old, but the heat pump with air conditioning was the project’s raison d’être, so we forged ahead, dropping $21,187 for the purchase and installation of a ducted appliance, which like all HVAC heat pumps has units for inside and outside the house. Another line item: $1,787 for duct-system modifications and insulation.
To make our home gas-free, we also had to get rid of our gas-powered range and fireplace. (My love affair with that range ended after I read research linking benzene fumes from gas stoves to blood cancers.) So for another $6,750 — a major splurge — we got a state-of-the-art induction stove with a battery that made it eligible for up to $2,000 in federal tax credits. We also replaced our gas fireplace with a $500 portable electric model.
I was thrilled when our utility, PG&E, finally shut off our gas. But then came the chase for promised savings, involving reams of red tape. We had fortunately been able to front more than $41,000, but we really depended on the potentially $17,000 in savings from rebates and credits.
Our contractor handled the HEEHRA paperwork, while I applied for everything else. The utility program required multiple photographs of our old and new equipment, model and serial numbers, a W9, 12 months of utility bills, itemized invoices, and closed permits. I soon understood why many contractors refuse to deal with the incentive programs.
Rough spots
Switching a home to electric power can turn into a major remodel, and it often felt like I wasn’t the only one scrambling to figure it out. Experienced as our contractor was, we had glitches. A three-day installation process expanded to five, including three December nights without heat. We failed the initial permit inspection because the town inspector deemed the outside component of the heat pump too noisy. Workers had to return three times because some rooms were hotter than others. Worst was my discovery that they had used fiberglass blown insulation in the attic. Fiberglass wasn’t specified on the estimate, but of course I should have asked, instead of worriedly Googling “health hazards of fiberglass insulation” after the fact. (Home remodeling 101: You can never just trust.)In each case, the contractor amiably returned to make things right, including battening down the fiberglass at no additional cost and building a wooden enclosure to help reduce noise. He also saved us thousands of dollars by figuring out a way to make the new appliances work with our limited electrical panel — a major roadblock for many would-be electrifiers.
But what about the utility bills?
I couldn’t wait to see our next utility bill. But to my dismay, the now all-electric bill was nearly double the total of what we’d paid a year earlier for both gas and electricity. This is, I’m sorry, a dirty little secret of switching your home to electric.A 2024 report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory projected that a majority of Americans (up to 95 percent of households) would see lower energy bills with a heat pump vs. a gas furnace, assuming efficient insulation and equipment. Our project had these advantages, but there’s more to this story — and it’s not the heat pump’s fault.
Electricity usually costs more than gas, a phenomenon some call the spark gap. On top of that, California has some of the nation’s highest — and fastest-rising — electricity prices. Regulators granted PG&E six rate hikes in 2024, meaning our bill would have gone up no matter what I did. We buy 100 percent clean, renewable electricity from a community choice aggregation (CCA) program, which charges slightly less per kilowatt than PG&E. But PG&E still charges to deliver it, at close to double the price of the actual electricity.
In my search for ways to lower that bill, I consulted several experts, including Shreyas Sudhakar, a heat pump expert, blogger and former jet propulsion scientist. Sudhakar told me that PG&E had a newish discount for all-electric homes, which our CCA would also offer, potentially reducing our cost by about 10 cents per kilowatt. I also learned that we could cut our bill significantly by reducing our energy use during peak hours, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Our bill would come down dramatically if we could add solar power (and a battery), but that would take even more up-front capital. We’ve been told, however, that our roof is too shady.
Sudhakar’s suggestions did considerably reduce our next bill, although we’re still paying more than we did while using gas. Heat pumps are indeed more efficient than gas furnaces, and they’ll use less energy even if you keep them on all the time, as experts recommend. But don’t expect massive savings unless and until those electricity rates change.
Heat pumps for all?
At this writing, even as we’re still waiting for rebates and credits and paying interest on the loan, I’m glad we switched. Our house is more comfortable, healthier and even safer, considering that up to half of post-earthquake fires are caused by gas leaks.What’s more, I’m optimistic that more people, including those in lower income brackets, will be joining me. Some studies show that heat pumps, unlike solar panels or electric vehicles, are already as common in low-income homes as in wealthy ones. (Many of these homes switched from more expensive fuels, such as propane.)
There’s rising pressure on state regulators to implement lower, electrified heating rates to accelerate what many believe is an inevitable transition, because fossil fuels are not just harmful but limited.
“A lot of really smart people are working to solve the problems you ran into,” Sudhakar says. “Contractors are getting better at guiding people. Manufacturers are designing equipment to more easily replace gas furnaces. Activists are pushing for utility rate reforms.”
At the same time, he adds, “We need millions of homeowners going through the same process you did, so that it gets less painful with each consecutive home.”
While we’re not yet saving money, I expect our investment to pay off as the world moves, however slowly, toward cleaner power.
By then we may also have paid off our loan.
Katherine Ellison is a freelance writer in San Anselmo, California.
Source (Archive)
A dual-source system would have given them the ability to still have a gas furnace for the really cold nights.
