Rewiring America Launches “Personal Electrification Planner” Tool to Help American Homeowners Go Electric and Save Money

“PEP” delivers comprehensive whole-home electrification plan with new features forthcoming to help homeowners go from planning to fully electrified living

San Francisco, CA, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 31, 2024 — Rewiring America, the nation’s leading electrification nonprofit, today launched a new, easy-to-use home-electrification planning tool that helps American homeowners save money, improve home comfort, and make a big climate impact by going electric.

The new Personal Electrification Planner is built on top of a powerful data and analytical model that estimates the upfront cost, annual bill savings, annual emissions reductions, and air pollution and health impacts for a series of electrification upgrades, including heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction stoves, electric dryers, EV chargers, and rooftop solar.

Like Rewiring America’s Inflation Reduction Act Savings Calculator, the Personal Electrification Planner incorporates the federal incentives contained in the landmark climate law based on the user’s income and location – but goes beyond it with specific predictive modeling based on your housing type and provides a detailed guide for every step of the project process.

In less than five minutes, the Personal Electrification Planner will generate a customized plan to help American homeowners go electric based on their unique home, lifestyle, and priorities.

Explore Rewiring America's Personal Electrification Planner >>>

“In interviewing homeowners, we heard over and over again that people learned a lot of information, often the hard way, as they took on these projects to go electric,” said Tom Mercer, Head of Product at Rewiring America. “Our goal was to develop a set of resources that could help homeowners front load these learnings, make smarter choices, and give people a better idea of what the journey could look like for their specific home. The Personal Electrification Planner really gives homeowners that advantage.”

"I'm no stranger to doing my own research before jumping into any home project and this tool is exactly what the average user needs," said Gerardo Rodriguez, a homeowner in Raleigh, North Carolina, who is in the process of installing a home battery system as a solution to power outages that occur during extreme summer heat. "In addition to clearly breaking down incentives available to me to make my project more affordable, it empowered me to have informed conversations with salespeople and installers as I shopped for the right contractor for the job. The Personal Electrification Planner takes away all the guesswork."

"The planner really helps get people thinking in terms of what's the best sequence for electrification projects," said Linda Kingery, a homeowner near Bemidji, Minnesota, who has rooftop solar, an EV, and is using the Personal Electrification Planner to explore heat pump solutions. "My friends are in a similar place as I am and can't do everything all at once. This tool helps you know where to start!"

"This tool dramatically helps clarify the road to home electrification," said Adam Barney, a homeowner in Boston, Massachusetts, who recently installed heat pumps. "I can say from experience that there's a million little questions that need to be answered before taking on any kind of home upgrade like installing heat pumps. I'll be using the Personal Electrification Planner to help guide the rest of my journey to full electrification."

"This electrification planner will help homeowners plan their purchases over time to maximize their incentives, as well as help electricians future proof their electrical capacity," said Brian LaMorte, a contractor and co-founder of LaMorte Electric Heating & Cooling. "The IRA is going to be around for nine more years, and this tool will clarify federal rebate and tax credit incentives to help maximize savings on these investments."

The Personal Electrification Planner for homeowners is paired with a new “Electrification for Renters” page. This page includes multiple projects renters can undertake themselves to go electric, as well as a guide for talking to your landlord, and two Rewiring America courses to become “electric enthusiasts” and “electric coaches” in their communities and online.

Soon, the tool will help connect users with experts and resources in their area to help them start their electrification journey. In the coming months, additional features will be released, aimed at making the tool:

• More accessible for more Americans by adding language support (starting with Spanish) and by supporting users who have specific projects in mind rather than a plan to electrify their home.
• More actionable by matching folks with local contractors, rebate programs, and other resources that help them take on and complete upgrades.
• Even more personalized for every user by refining our savings and cost numbers based on market data and personalizing guides for different home types.

Data sources for the engine powering the Personal Electrification Planner include NREL's ResStock and Cambium tools, EIA state average energy prices, and project costs from Massachusetts and California state incentive programs.

ABOUT REWIRING AMERICA Rewiring America is the leading electrification nonprofit, focused on electrifying our homes, businesses, and communities. We develop accessible, actionable data and tools. Rewiring America helps Americans save money, tackle nationwide emissions goals, improve health, and build the next generation of the clean energy workforce. We believe in an abundant, flourishing, climate-safe future, and know that, together, we can realize one.