Home solar isn’t essential to home electrification, but for those with the financial means, it offers environmental and budgetary benefits, says Cora Wyent, senior director of research at the electrification nonprofit Rewiring America. “We’re trying to switch our whole grid to renewable electricity, and anywhere we can convert to solar is good,” Wyent says. “You’re
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While the federal inflation reduction act currently provides homeowners thousands of dollars of electrification incentives through tax credits, that is only one piece of a larger savings puzzle. The next biggest piece are federal rebates established under the IRA. Unlike the tax credits, which require homeowners to have enough taxable income in order to benefit,
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Sam Calisch has electrification bona fides. There’s the MIT engineering degree, the years spent in a lab tinkering with electromagnetic devices and his time on Capitol Hill as a scientist-turned-advocate, successfully campaigning for the inclusion of historic climate measures in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. So why is his new gig all about the humble
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1. Make a plan! Experts say that before homeowners start installing new electric appliances, they should evaluate some fundamentals. First, is their house properly weatherized? And second, is their electrical system properly wired? After all, even an industry professional like Cora Wyent, the senior director of research at electrification nonprofit Rewiring America, can make mistakes.
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A few years ago, Cora Wyent, senior director of research at electrification nonprofit Rewiring America, and her partner were weighing the purchase of an induction oven to replace the old gas model in their kitchen. Induction ovens run off electricity and, thanks to some fascinating engineering, boast such perks as cooking elements that not only
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The year is 2050. On every street across the wide expanse of the United States, nearly every vehicle that goes by emits only the quiet whine of an electric motor. A few folks still ride by in antique, gas-powered cars, but in many places such vehicles are greatly outnumbered even by electric bikes. The houses
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Founded in 2020, Rewiring America is the nation’s leading nonprofit for helping Americans electrify their homes. Their task is a challenging one. Electrification can be a confusing endeavor, with homeowners often left on their own to figure out what to electrify first, when to do it, how to get started and what financial incentives they’re
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Several times a week, John Boyle, research director for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, rides the power of electricity to work. A resident of Edgewater Park, New Jersey, Boyle rides a foldable e-bike to the Beverly Rail Station, which he takes aboard NJ Transit’s River Line to Camden. If the weather is nice, he’ll
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In Philadelphia, there was once a large public park where humans had previously intervened but where nature was reasserting itself. Residents flocked there to leave the noise and rigidity of the city grid behind and bathe in the wild unruliness of trees and meadows. This was a world unto itself, but not for long: one
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When the Fairmount Water Works was built in the early 19th century to provide clean drinking water to Philadelphia, it was a feat of modern engineering. Steam engines and a dam across the Schuylkill River powered water wheels large enough to pump millions of gallons a day uphill to a reservoir atop nearby Fair Mount.
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