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About a third of the country's climate pollution comes from buildings. And one way to reduce that is to switch from fossil fuel-burning appliances to electric ones. The thing is, that can require expensive electrical upgrades, but manufacturers are working to make it easier. Here's NPR's Jeff Brady.
JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: In a Manhattan apartment, Max Van Gilder is making spaghetti carbonara.
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MAX VAN GILDER: Mix the eggs and the garlic together.
BRADY: On his new stove, there's pork sizzling in a frying pan. Van Gilder is a retired pediatrician and wanted to replace his old gas stove with a new electric one.
VAN GILDER: As I'm getting older, I was afraid that I would leave the gas on.
BRADY: And to save energy, he wanted an induction stove that heats pans with magnetism rather than flames. But switching required expensive electrical work. Then he found a company called Copper. It makes induction stoves that plug into a regular outlet. A battery under the oven charges through the night and powers the stove, eliminating the big plug most electric ranges have. Van Gilder likes his new stove, but it came with a hefty price.
SAM CALISCH: The base price is $6,000. There's a tax credit that brings it down to about $4,000.
BRADY: Copper CEO Sam Calisch says that's still a bargain for older multifamily buildings with gas pipes that sometimes leak climate-warming methane.
CALISCH: In these cases, we install for less than half of what it costs just to fix the gas system, and then we allow that building to retire that old aging infrastructure and decarbonize.
BRADY: Beyond stoves, companies are making heaters and air conditioners that plug into a standard outlet. Joe Soto is testing one in his Woodside, New York, apartment.
JOE SOTO: I call ourselves the guinea pigs (laughter).
BRADY: The New York City Housing Authority used to heat Soto's home with steam radiators.
SOTO: No, it wasn't very reliable. There are times that we spent many winters freezing in the cold.
BRADY: Now his two-bedroom apartment has three window heat pumps that save energy by extracting heat in one place and moving it to where it's wanted, similar to how a refrigerator works. These heat pumps are mounted like a window air conditioner, and Soto says they also cool his apartment in the summer.
SOTO: The temperature's been constant. Winter into summer, you don't feel the difference.
BRADY: One company making these window heat pumps is Gradient, where Vince Romanin is the founder and chief technology officer.
VINCE ROMANIN: We can install our system without any building modification, without any electricians, without holes in the wall, without asbestos mitigation, without scaffolding - all of these things. It is 30-minute install, so we're in and out of the resident's home.
BRADY: Heat pump technology is used in water heaters, too, and there's a plug-in version designed to replace a gas water heater.
LAURA NAKAMURA: It was all done in one day. It wasn't a major overhaul.
BRADY: Laura Nakamura in Concord, California, got one last year and says it's louder than her old gas one because there's a fan, but it also blows cold air, which should cool down her garage in the summer. And it works as well as her gas water heater did.
NAKAMURA: It's just as hot, and the water is still just as wet.
BRADY: She jokes, but plug-in heat pump water heaters do take longer to warm up.
James Courtney is with the water heater manufacturer Rheem.
JAMES COURTNEY: Because of the slower recovery, we do often recommend that those are installed in warmer states. Really, the main thing is the incoming groundwater temperature.
BRADY: Warmer water requires less energy to make it hot. Rheem says water heaters like this are still a small portion of the overall market but the fastest growing. And Panama Bartholomy with the Building Decarbonization Coalition, says more products like this are coming.
PANAMA BARTHOLOMY: I know there are manufacturers that are looking about putting batteries inside heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
BRADY: He says those will plug into a regular outlet, too. And with a battery, they'll continue working when the power goes out.
Jeff Brady, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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