The terms “building electrification” and “building decarbonization” - sometimes used interchangeably - describe shifting to use electricity rather than fossil fuels for heating, hot water heating, and cooking appliances and systems. As the electric grid adds more renewable energy generation, all buildings and systems connected to it benefit from lower carbon emissions.
With intentional design and analysis, building electrification and decarbonization can cut energy costs, improve indoor air quality, enhance safety, and bolster tenant and community resiliency.
When making decisions, building owners will need to consider unique factors of their properties, including building age, electrical capacity, physical space allocations, current fuel sources serving equipment and systems, and acceptable investment paybacks.
The Maryland Energy Administration advocates for efficient electrification, which means that building owners should typically invest in the overall efficiency of their buildings before making investments into electric systems and appliances. This can take the form of building envelope (walls, roof, windows) improvement. Furthermore, when evaluating systems that run on electricity, building owners should prioritize efficient equipment - e.g. heat pumps - rather than electric resistance when making investment decisions. Heat pump technology has advanced rapidly in the past decade and a broad array of end uses can now be served with heat pumps. This sequence will help ensure that the transition does not contribute to a rise in utility rates for building owners and tenants. While the equipment itself may be more expensive than electric resistance, the total cost of ownership will likely be lower.
Through its Clean Buildings Hub initiative, the Maryland Energy Administration is committed to connecting Marylanders with the resources they need to navigate electrification in their homes and buildings.
There are many grants, rebates, tax credits, and financing solutions for electrification improvements. Many of these incentives can be combined to maximize savings. Research available incentives based on your building type:Commercial/Multi-family Buildings Resources
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- Building Electrification Technology Roadmap: This guide characterizes the industry status of a comprehensive set of electrification technologies that replace traditional combustion technologies, site barriers to adoption, and the road to accelerate adoption.
- Medium-Size Commercial Retrofits: How to Electrify Mid-Size Office Buildings: This report analyzes the technical, economic, and environmental implications of retrofitting fossil-gas-fired space heating and domestic hot water systems in a prototypical 50,000 square foot office building.
- Guidance Document on Space Heating Electrification for Large Commercial Buildings with Boilers: Most large buildings and many multifamily residences use natural gas or steam boilers to produce hot water to meet space heating demand and tenant comfort requirements. This guidance document focuses on electrification strategies for fossil fuel boilers for existing buildings, which have greater challenges than new-construction applications.
- Central Heat Pump Water Heater Design Guide: Up until recently, electric resistance boilers - which lead to excessive cost and electrical capacity needs - were the only viable electric alternative for water boilers. However, central heat pump water heaters (CHPWH) systems are now commercially viable. This guide is intended to help design engineers become familiar with how to design CHPWH systems in commercial buildings, including multifamily and other multi-tenant buildings.
- High-Efficiency Heat Pumps For Multifamily Resource Guide: This resource guide helps stakeholders overcome barriers to deploying high-efficiency technologies - such as heat pump HVAC and water heaters - in multifamily buildings.
- Guide to All-Electric Commercial Retrofits: This product guide helps users navigate technology options available today for building decarbonization.
- 2024 Turner Decarbonization Price Index: This price index provides an in-depth analysis of cost structures, market trends, and lead times related to the procurement and deployment of decarbonization technologies.
Single-family Homes Resources
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- Electrification of Homes without an Electrical Service Upgrade: Many homeowners are told they need to pay for expensive panel upgrades to decarbonize their homes. While this is sometimes the case, there are many low-cost solutions that can help you avoid this expensive upgrade. For more information on why you might need to upgrade your panel, view this presentation.
Cold Climate Air-Source Heat Pump List: The Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership (NEEP) curates a list of air-source heat pump systems that meet the latest version of the ccASHP Specification. The voluntary specification includes requirements for both performance levels and a series of reported performance standards.
Air-Source Heat Pump Consumer Buying Guide: This guide offers consumers information and guidance to understand how heat pumps work, their major benefits, how to select the right type of heat pump, and how to find an installer who can accomplish a high-quality installation.
