Health Consequences of extracting transporting and burning “natural” gas.
Part 6. Personal actions to get gas out of your home.
Previously in this series we have discussed the adverse health impacts of using gas to generate electricity, heat our buildings, and cook our food. Knowing that leaked and burned methane trap heat in the atmosphere which creates climate change and that your gas stove emits concentrations of pollutants that would be illegal outdoors probably motivates you to act. You want to take action but how? Following my personal mandate to never pose a problem without offering a solution I’ll give you some straightforward things that you can do in the very near future. Straightforward, yes; simple and inexpensive, no. Unfortunately getting gas out of the home requires replacing dirty appliances with clean ones and can cost a fair bit of money. In the next article in this series I will discuss policies that can make doing the right thing for your health and for global health the easiest thing to do. But for now lets talk about heat pumps and induction stoves.
If you wanted to do just one thing to reduce the emissions produced in your home you would replace your gas furnace with an electric heat pump. Furthermore with average temperatures on the rise and extreme heat events becoming more common thanks to climate change more homes have a need for cooling. Retrofitting your home with a heat pump is likely to be most cost effective if your gas furnace needs replacing AND you are feeling the need to add air conditioning. The energy policy think tank RMI has an excellent detailed series about how heat pumps work, their costs and benefits. Heat pumps don’t create heat they just move it and are so efficient that even if the majority of the electricity used to run one was generated by burning gas, it would result in lower carbon emissions than burning gas directly for heat. There are essentially two ways to set up heat pumps in your house, via a duct system or via a ductless mini-split. Which system you choose depends on several factors such as presence of heating ducts, desire to control different rooms separately and the desire to reduce circulating allergens.
Installing a heat pump will be huge for climate but won’t have much of an impact on indoor air quality. Switching to all electric cooking on the other hand will have major immediate health benefits for you and your family. Induction cooktops are more efficient than both gas and traditional electric cooktops. They are easier to control and clean. Consumer reports recently published a very helpful article on the pros and cons of induction. The pros pretty clearly outweigh the cons. You might need to purchase some new cookware, but if a magnet sticks to a current pot or pan you are good to go. The rest is all benefits except the cost. From practical first hand experience I can tell you that rewiring your kitchen with a 240 volt hookup for the new stove can double the cost of your project. However, a portable single “burner” induction cooktop can be purchased for between $70 and $150. My family owns two and rarely need to turn on the gas stove. Unfortunately gas stoves are unhealthy, leaking methane and benzene, even when turned off so ideally we would replace them all.
Before you decide to convert your home to all electric you should determine your eligibility for tax credits or rebates from the recently passed inflation reduction act. The financial credits can be quite substantial depending on your income level.
In the next article in this series I will discuss the policies we need in place to reduce our dependence on gas and to make all electric homes more accessible and more affordable for all.
Prior articles in this series
1. General Overview of the Impacts of Extracting, Transporting and Burning Gas
2. The Direct Climate Impacts of Burning Gas
3. More on the Health Consequences of Climate Change