Thread by @ssteingraber1

1/ So I have a little house, just under 1200 sq ft, built c. 1905. This thread is about how I disconnected it from natural gas and installed an air-source heat pump that runs on electric. I had the help of this non-profit, which connects homeowners w contractors + financing.

2/ Re: #ClimateCrisis, I remain firmly in the camp of political change over personal change, which makes me hesitant to even post about this bc I believe my efforts to help win a statewide ban on #fracking and close a local coal plant matter more than ditching my boiler.

3/ But I am putting two kids through college by myself, and whena rodent cremated itself inside my gas boiler last spring (yeah, likely a rat), I had a big decision to make about whether to fix it or replace it, so I thought this story might be relatable. #OneHouseAtaTime

4/ Here is my old boiler In the basement, which was efficient as they come. It combusted methane to heat water which circulated through hot water baseboards in all the rooms of my house. It also heated my hot water. It was 15 years old this spring.

5/ Here is my new system, which is not in the basement but outside of my house. Air source heat pumps are like refrigerators that run in reverse. They pull heat from the outside air—and can do this even in frigid temps—and transfer it inside. It also works to air condition.

6/ Here’s what the wall units look like inside my house where the warm air comes out. (Or cool air if air conditioning.) They have a fan, which I worried would be loud as it cycled on and off, but it’s whisper quiet. (Yes, that’s a shy rat terrier—totally worthless re: the rat)

In bedroom and kitchen I chose floor units instead of wall units on advice of others who said they helped keep floors warmer. (Rat terrier for scale.) These units have sensors to detect cold spots and direct warmth where needed. You don’t need them in all rooms. My house has five

8/ Its really cool to watch them work. Here are the vents. They automatically tilt, like flaps on an airplane, to direct warm or cold air where needed. Meanwhile, the intake vents below constantly the monitor the temperature of the air coming into the unit and make adjustments.

9/ Here is the remote control that you use to program the units. Each indoor unit has one, so you can keep different zones at different temps. I keep the remotes in a holster mounted on the wall. #AlwaysLosingShit

Green bean for scale.

10/ My indoor air quality is much better now. This is an evidence based statement. Benzene, radon, and travel w natural gas; carbon monoxide forms when it combusts. SO HERE’S THE WEIRD THING: I felt completely insecure when I went into my furnace-less basement for the 1st time.

11/ That’s when I realized how deeply fossil fuels have penetrated our psyche. My house still has acoal bin. (That’s where I store camping stuff.) Then for at least another 50 years it burned gas. Some fossil fuel has been burning in the basement of this house for 100 years

12/ And yet, the day I walked downstairs and saw...no boiler was a spooky day. It felt like I was taking a leap of faith. Solar powered electricity running through heat pumps OUTSIDE my house was going to keep us warm now. Here’s my new dehumidifier where boiler used to be.

13/ That feeling didn’t last long though. By the time the gas and electric boys arrived to disconnect the gas line, I was jubilant. First I came home to this graffiti on my street:

14/ A few days later I came home to this:

15/ Here’s my disconnected gas line. While down there, they decided to run a new casing (yellow) through the gas line of my neighbor, a Baptist minister, wife, and kids. Their home is the parsonage. That’s when I realized—yet again— how monumental the task of decarbonization.

16/ Here’s my old gas meter. I’m saving money bc no one needs to read it any more. It already appears to me like a relic of a bygone era. I mean, doesn’t it?

17/ So asked the guys to take out out. Again, I momentarily had a weird destabilizing feeling—like I was lifting the anchor of a boat and would be adrift somehow without a gas meter. WITHOUT A GAS METER.

It didn’t last long, reader.

(Yeah I know it’s a weed.)

18/ So that is the story of how my little house became carbon-free thanks to a suicidal rat and the assistance of solartompkins.org. Now I can go back to work on the big stuff.

Yes, we have time for Q and A. Ask away. FIN.

19/ Forgot to show you my new hot water tank, which has a separate heat pump built in that pulls heat from the air of my basement to make hot water. Hence my basement is now a few degrees cooler. I’m amazed how well it works. With two teenagers, I can still take a hot shower.

20/ My sole complaint is about the humming noise from the water tank, which is taller than my old one. The heat pump sits on top. My basement ceiling is low. I can hear it cycle on and off in my living room above. I’m planning to add soundproofing between floor joists. But....

21/ ... I am no longer burning fossil fuels to take a shower and wash my dishes which makes me happier than the hum makes me sad. I feel sure it’s fixable.