I’ve always believed electrification was the future

That’s where the dreamed-of Tesla came in.

If the home was going to accommodate an EV, its charger, and solar, then its outdated electrical panel – “a literal fire hazard,” as Nelson describes it – needed to be replaced. “Because I knew the car was coming, I decided that I wanted a 200-amp panel and a subpanel for my eventual Tesla charger,” says Nelson.

A panel upgrade opened up an entire home’s worth of electric possibilities. But it wasn’t that simple. Nelson and Pamella needed additional improvements and new appliances. And that’s how they found The Switch Is On.

In this interview, Nelson walks us through his experience from start to finish. And “I did get my Tesla Model Y,” he says with a laugh.

Hi Nelson, thanks for chatting with us! Can you describe your house and its electric appliances?

My wife and I live in Granite Bay, north of Sacramento, and our house is about 2,600 square feet. It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a garage. 

We’ve got a Tesla Model Y, a Tesla solar roof, an A.O. Smith tank water heater, an LG high-efficiency all-in-one washer-dryer, and a Rheem heat pump. The house came with a GE Profile induction stove. 

Nice. What made you decide to go all-electric?

Well, I’ve always wanted an electric car. I was a fan of Teslas back when they were a really early invention. I knew an electric car was my end goal.

I’ve also always believed that electrification was the future. Heat pumps are the technology that’s going to help us improve our energy efficiency. All of the science shows that it’s the most efficient way to, say, air condition a house.

So I was a believer in that. But I’m also a pragmatic person. I’m not about to throw myself into a mountain of debt, and when we bought our house in 2018, we had a 1970s home with very little incentive to upgrade. I was trying to figure out how to pay for all of the different repairs and upgrades that this house desperately needed. That’s how I stumbled on The Switch Is On. 

The Switch Is On Incentive Finder opened it up for me. It introduced me to appliance rebates, utility incentives, and tax incentives. I first found federal tax incentives for a solar roof. When I found those, I thought, “Well, if there’s an incentive for this, there must be others out there.” And so I started going down that path.

Once I discovered Incentive Finder, I started sharing it with other people, saying, “Did you know about this?” Actually, I was really jealous of my family in the Bay Area, in San Mateo – they had tons of rebates available! 

Glad we could help! So, once you found the incentives at The Switch Is On, how did you decide what to upgrade first?

I’m an engineer, so I had a master plan, and it started with what I called “critical upgrades.” One critical upgrade was the roof. I planned to add solar to it; I’d budgeted already for that. 

And then there was the electric panel. It was a literal fire hazard. I knew I needed to replace it and upgrade it. And because I knew that panel upgrade was coming, I decided I wanted a 200 amp panel, plus a subpanel for the eventual Tesla charger.* 

I set up the plan with the intent to add new projects over time. We added the heat pump early, because we needed new air conditioning. Then came the water heater. To be honest, that was opportunistic. I just so happened to come across an incentive for heat pump water heaters on The Switch Is On, so I said, “Great, let’s just pull the trigger on this now.” And I’m so happy I did, because that was right at the close of the window for that incentive. 

A few years later, I bought my EV and charger. At the time, we were still under NEM 2.0**, so I ran the calculations and decided not to get a Tesla Powerwall. But I did get my Tesla Model Y!

*The Switch Is On editor’s note: Nelson’s home needed a panel upgrade, but do you know how much power your panel can handle? If you’re considering adding electric appliances, a good first step is to get to know your electric panel. You may find that you need to upsize, or that with some tweaks, you can go all-electric with the power you already have. 

**The Switch Is On editor’s note: California’s Net Energy Metering, or NEM, allows residents with solar panels to sell excess solar energy to their utility companies. The California Public Utilities Commission rolled out a new iteration of the program, NEM 3.0, in 2023. This version makes battery storage, like a Tesla Powerwall, more attractive to residential solar users than it was previously.

How did the actual upgrade process go?

The panel upgrade was painless, actually. I had a fantastic electrician right off the bat, and he knew how to work with the county, pull all of the correct permits with PG&E, and make it relatively painless. 

It was a surprising challenge to find someone willing to install the water heater. I discovered that a lot of the plumbers were not comfortable installing electric water heaters, so they tried to convince me not to do it. No exaggeration, I had to talk to about five plumbers before I found one. According to him, the challenge is that in California, you need to carry both an HVAC license and a plumbing license. 

The California Heat Pump Partnership is actually working to eliminate that barrier through workforce training and permitting specification – specifically, giving plumbers permission to complete the wiring work necessary for heat pump water heaters to make it easier to find contractors. 

Which brings me to my next question: Which upgraded appliance is the most satisfying, and why?

The heat pump water heater is the coolest. Literally the coolest, because my garage runs super hot; it’s not air-conditioned. So I like knowing that on a hot summer day, the water heater is actually using the heat inside the garage to heat my water. And in turn, it’s putting some cold air back in my garage. And when it’s 100-plus degrees and you’re working in the garage, any little bit helps!

Also, the Tesla solar roof, which has integrated solar panel tiles, is really cool. You can’t actually see panels; all you see is the roof. And Tesla gives me the ability to see what I’m producing on a sunny day compared to a cloudy day, which is fun. The solar panels were the keystone of all this, because it helped me justify the costs of upgrading all of the appliances. 

Did you notice any changes in your energy bill since upgrading to electric appliances?

Yes, for a couple of different reasons. I have no gas bill, essentially; the only thing that I use gas for at this point is my gas fireplace, and that’s more for aesthetics and atmosphere than anything. So that gets limited use during December and January. 

I use my car a lot more than I did in my previous job, so as a result, I use more electricity to charge. Basically, now I have an EV charging bill instead of a gasoline bill. I still pay PG&E for that, but it’s far less than it would have been without the solar panels.

Did your heating, cooking, or laundry routines change after going electric? 

Some might think you have to make a grand sacrifice in how you live your life, but in terms of my lifestyle, nothing is different than it was before! We were already used to an electric oven and stove. The washer-dryer is high-efficiency and works exactly as planned. There’s no change in routine. The only difference is when you look under the hood. 

Where the changes come in are in the savings. And with solar especially, it’s in knowing where your energy is coming from. 

So what’s next? Is this the end of the road for your home’s electrification journey, or is there more to come?

The next upgrade on my list is to add higher-efficiency windows to keep reducing my costs. Otherwise, I’ve hit most of my goals. A heat pump washer-dryer at some point would be nice, although my current washer-dryer is relatively new. And my second car will definitely be an electric car, too, so soon I’ll be in the market for that. 

What’s your advice to someone in a similar situation who is considering going all-electric?

Don’t overthink it! Your routines are really not going to be that different than they were with using gas appliances. If you need a panel upgrade, then you might have to plan ahead a little bit, but really, aside from that, it’s a fairly simple swap.