Achieving Health Benefits Through Electrification

Homeowners, contractors, and program designers are confronted with many claims about the health and resilience benefits of electrifying home heating, water heating and cooking. This session will critically examine the plausibility and evidence of these claims and summarize what we know and don't know. We will distinguish the potential benefits for an individual home from those that accrue to the community, and also highlight those that have been demonstrated or validated through data and empirical studies. Another focus will be to highlight how user choices and activities can affect the potential benefits from electrification.

Learning Objectives: (1) Understand how electrification of end uses can reduce air pollutant exposure within a home or at the community level and which end uses affect exposure at each level. (2) Understand how electrifying residential appliances impacts resilience for individual homes and at the community level. (3) Identify actions that can be taken alongside electrification to reduce air pollutant exposures in the home. (4) Identify other retrofits that are helpful when implemented with electrification.