Ask Pete
Meet Pete Johnson. He is your neighbor on Woodland Road and a founding member of Carbon Neutral Kent Woodlands. He and his wife, Julie, are determined to get their family household carbon footprint to zero.
Their first priority is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels both in their home and transportation by Electrifying Their Lives.
The home they purchased 10 years ago was built in 1959. They loved the home’s bare bones. Because Julie is an architect and Pete likes to tackle home projects, they knew they could transform this house into their dream home. But Pete says that it needed everything.
Pete’s appreciation for energy conservation is ingrained in him. His family’s Connecticut home had solar thermal back in the 70s. He and Julie installed a solar array in their previous home in Sausalito when it was an uphill battle to get approval. So it was a given that they would install both solar thermal and a photovoltaic array.
Solar Thermal heats the water for free!
The photovoltaic array converts solar energy into electricity to power the home and their electric vehicles.
Pete doesn’t want to spend his energy dollars on PG&E, but even with solar, their household needs to supplement some electricity from the grid. So he and Julie chose Marin Clean Energy as their electricity provider. They opted for MCE’s Deep Green plan so that any electricity they have to procure is generated from solar panels in Marin.
They added 2 Tesla Powerwall home batteries for energy resilience and to shift the time of day when they draw from the grid to save money. (more on this in a future blog).
Once they were assured they were using carbon free electricity, they wanted to use that electricity for all of their energy needs. Unfortunately the old house had a gas water heater and a gas home heating system.
Pete will share the ins and outs of replacing a gas furnace with an electric HVAC system in a future blog.
Pete was already driving a hybrid EV when they bought their home. But since then Pete and Julie have purchased all electric vehicles.
Pete has completed more energy saving/carbon cutting changes and retrofits and has a few on his “to do” list. He will get into the nitty gritty in future blog post.
Are you thinking about solar? Want to look into an electric heat pump? Want to know what it will cost and who you can go to?
Ask Pete.
If you are thinking about changing your gas heating and cooling to electric heat pumps or want to know more about adding solar and batteries to your home, Ask Pete about his experience. Pete loves to share what he has learned and is eager to help his neighbors on their carbon reducing journey.
Send your questions here.