Take a tour of our home

Watch this video tour of our home, which we transformed over 6 years to reduce our carbon emissions and live more sustainably. 

By watching this video, you will learn how to green up your own home, with helpful tips to guide you along. For more details, read our tour notes and features list. 

Thanks to our partners at Marin Green Home Tour for producing this great video in 2023! Since then, we have now completed our home electrification, adding a heat pump space heater, induction range and electric washer/dryer. 

For a full overview, watch my talk about our all-electric home, which I gave at the Tam Valley Community Center in March 2025 (see slides).

Switch to renewable electricity

The first action we took was to switch to 100% renewable electricity! We signed up for MCE’s Deep Green service to power our home with their solar and wind farms – instead of buying electricity from PG&E, much of which is still generated by fossil fuels. 

You can make the switch online in just minutes and it only costs the price of a cup of coffee each month. This simple change cut about 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions from our home’s electricity use. Learn more in our Green Change guide on Renewable Electricity.

Install solar panels

In 2020, we installed 11 rooftop solar panels from SunPower (now owned by Maxeon). This small 4.5 kW solar system generates about two-thirds of our electricity use, powering our home and electric vehicles. On sunny days, we can even charge our EV straight from the sun! We expect to recoup our investment over 10 years, from lower energy bills alone. 

If you can, we highly recommend installing solar: generating your own clean energy is one of the best ways to cut your emissions and lower your bills. Learn more in our Green Change guide on Solar Panels.

Get a home battery

Our home battery stores the solar energy we collect during the day and powers our home at night or during power outages. 

Our 13 kWh SunVault battery helps us save money and ease demand on the grid during peak hours. While this model is no longer sold, many other home batteries are available today. 

On average, our battery stores about 12% of the solar energy we generate (see slide). We’re now considering adding a second battery and more solar panels – to power more of our appliances from the sun, instead of the grid. Learn more in our Home Batteries guide.

Install a heat pump space heater 

Heating accounts for up to half of a home’s greenhouse gas emissions in the US, depending where you live. To reduce our carbon footprint, we replaced our gas furnace with a new heat pump space heater/cooler in 2024. 

This clean energy appliance reduces air pollution both inside and outside our home, which helps cool the earth. Instead of burning harmful fossil fuels, our heat pump ingeniously transfers heat to and from our home, making it much more efficient than any other HVAC system.

We bought a 3-ton Mitsubishi ducted heat pump system, with an outdoor condenser and indoor air handler connected to our existing ducts. It has served us well for heating our home in the winter, as well as cooling it in the summer.

Our heat pump HVAC was expertly installed by John Owens Services, whom we highly recommend if you live in the North Bay. They did load calculations for each room AND a blow test on our ducts to determine the best solution for us before they got the job, at no charge. Finding a great contractor to electrify your home can take time and due diligence, but it makes a big difference in the end.

Learn more in my green tip about our ducted heat pump. Also check out this tip about ductless heat pumps by our friend Kevin Morrison.

Get a heat pump water heater

When our old gas-powered water heater broke in 2019, we replaced it with an energy-efficient electric appliance. To heat our water, we now use a 50-gallon electric heat pump water heater from A.O. Smith. It saves us energy and money, as well as reduces our carbon emissions.

This heat pump water heater is two to three times more efficient than a natural gas water heater, and it uses 70% less energy than a conventional electric water heater. It was also installed by John Owens Service, and they took care of the 240V outlet needed for this appliance. Learn more in my tip about our electric heat pump water heater.

We love our heat pumps! Not only do they help fight climate change by reducing our carbon emissions, but they also reduce our energy bills and improve air quality in our home. Best of all, we power them mostly with clean electricity from our solar panels, home battery, and other renewable sources.

Get an induction range

In 2024, we replaced our gas stove with a full induction range, and installed this GE Slide-In Range, a powerful and sleek appliance that comes with five induction burners and a self-cleaning convection oven with airfry. 

Watch this video to learn more. We’ve fallen in love with this new appliance and haven’t missed our gas stove one bit. Induction cooktops use electromagnetism to directly heat your cookware, which is not only faster and more precise than gas but also safer since there’s no open flame, and no harmful emissions. What’s not to like?

The environmental benefits are a huge plus. Switching to this electric appliance helped us reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, cut down on emissions, and contribute to a more sustainable future. 

Learn more in this Green Tip I wrote about our new induction range.

Try a portable induction cooktop

Before buying our full induction range, we tested the waters with a inexpensive portable induction cooktop from Duxtop. We tried it for a year, and only used our natural gas stove when we needed a second burner or oven. 

After that successful test, we decided to upgrade to a full induction range, which is described in the previous section. The transition to induction cooking doesn’t have to be complicated, and making the switch can have a big impact on saving the planet.  

Learn more about this tip about portable induction cooktops by my our friend Al Grumet, who turned us on to this great product.

Get an electric grill

Now you can grill without the hassle of propane refills or messy charcoal, while reducing your carbon emissions! 

That’s why we replaced our propane barbecue grill with this compact electric grill from Weber, which works really well for us. 

An electric barbecue is the cleaner and healthier way to grill. To learn more, watch this short video by our partner Brian Stewart, and visit his Electrify Now site.

Switch to LED lights

Did you know that switching to LEDs can reduce your electricity use from lights by up to 90%? 

We have now upgraded most of our lights with LEDs, to save energy and lower your electric bill. This is an easy action to take, as it doesn’t cost much. 

Switch to LEDs, save money and help fight climate change! Find out how in Green Change’s LED Guide.

Ride an electric car

In 2019, we bought our first and only electric car: a Tesla Model 3. It’s worked really well for us, and has greatly reduced our carbon emissions. We mostly drive it for longer trips (25 miles or more), when biking, walking or taking public transit might take too long. 

We no longer recommend buying a Tesla, given Elon Musk’s harmful attacks on democracy. But we plan to keep ours as long as it works, rather than rush to replace this well-designed EV. The good news is that there are so many great new EV models to choose from now! 

Learn more in our Green Change guide on Electric Cars.

Get an ebike

The two electric bikes we bought from The New Wheel have changed our transportation habits. 

I ride my Benno Boost ebike almost every day for errands like groceries, and for recreation in nearby nature trails. Phyllis often joins me with her Tern HSD, for fun adventures to beautiful spots in our area. 

My ebike has changed my life! It helps me get around without working up a sweat, increases my range and speed, lets me climb up steep hills with less effort, and it greatly reduces the air pollution I generate. As a result, I sold our second car, and only use our EV for long-distance trips that are over 25 miles away.

But most importantly, my daily ebike rides have made me healthier: I get a lot more exercise, and riding in the beautiful hills of my beloved Marin Headlands have deepened my connection to nature and my own peace of mind. Learn more in our Green Change guide on Electric Bikes.

Turn off the gas

After we replaced our last gas-powered appliances with clean electric products, it was finally time to turn off the gas. In summer 2024, we had PG&E remove our meter!

It was a wonderful feeling to finally switch from gas to clean energy. We were glad to let go of our old appliances, which were emitting harmful gases and contributing to climate change.

We had been working towards this goal for over 6 years! Now that our home is all-electric, we have a much lower carbon footprint, and we are getting closer to achieving net-zero emissions for our household.

Plan ahead

If you are considering a similar electrification journey, I encourage you to make a plan in advance. Electrifying our home and our rides required a lot of research and planning, as there were many tricky challenges along the way.

With help from energy advisors, I put together a full electrification plan to prepare for our transition. This required me to analyze our energy use in great detail, and I’m glad I did. Learning how the technology works ahead of time will help you make more informed decisions, enabling you to drive the whole process. It’s worth the investment to become a knowledgeable homeowner.

Now that our electrification is complete, we’re already planning for the next phase in our sustainable journey: to reduce heat and energy loss in our old, leaky home. To that end, we are now considering a range of insulation and air sealing improvements, such as: upgrade our windows; weather strip our doors; seal all gaps, holes and cracks; and insulate accessible walls and ceilings. When that next phase is complete, we’ll turn our attention to creating a truly sustainable garden.

Greening up your home is a lifelong journey! Here are a few planning tips to guide you along the way.

Get Advice
A good energy advisor can help you make some hard decisions that are unique to your household, as you can’t just rely on specialized contractors to make those calls for you.

Our energy advisor was HomeIntel. They prepared a helpful electrification report based on our PG&E data. Their excellent service is free if you live in North California and are a PG&E customer: sign up here and tell them I sent you!

Electrify Responsibly
For this project, we decided to optimize our existing 100 Amp electric panel to power those new appliances. We wanted to avoid upsizing our panel to 200 Amp, which would have been costly, lengthy – and unnecessary.

Our goal was to reduce our load on the grid by using the Watt Diet, which helps homeowners electrify responsibly with efficient appliances and load-sharing practices. Based on our analysis, we concluded that we had sufficient capacity to power all our electric appliances with our existing 100 Amp panel.

We are now using a handy home energy monitor from Emporia to track our usage. If needed, we are open to adding a smart splitter and/or circuit pauser later on, to better manage our energy use.

Find a Good Electrician
I talked to nearly a dozen electricians about this project over the years, and only a few of them seemed familiar with the unique challenges of all-electric retrofits. Many tried to sell us a 200 Amp upgrade, and only a few had experience installing energy monitors, smart panels, smart splitters and/or circuit pausers to support the Watt Diet.

We ended up hiring Urban Energy for this job, as they shared our responsible electrification goals, were open to thinking outside the box, and seemed most familiar with new technology like energy monitors. The world needs more forward-thinking electricians like them!

Invest Gradually
To reach our goals, we had to fund our home improvements gradually, spreading the costs over six years: see our electrification timeline.

Since we’re retired, with limited income, we also had to change our spending priorities, delaying big expenses like travel abroad until after we reached key milestones. After making a large investment like solar and batteries, we would take a break for a year or two before making our next big investment.

All our electrification expenses were about $125k over six years – or an average $16k/year after rebates. While this was a significant investment, we expect to recoup it over time. And we are glad that we could do our part to help solve climate change.

Get Rebates
To lower our costs, we applied for financial incentives from a half-dozen federal, state and local agencies. To date, we have received rebates and incentives for over 20% of our home electrification expenses!

We are grateful to state and local agencies that supported us with rebates, such as California Energy-Smart Homes, TECH Clean California and Electrify Marin – and for the federal tax credits we received for our EV, solar panels and heat pumps.

Learn how to find electrification rebates for your own home from groups like The Switch Is On and Rewiring America.

A short version of these electrification planning tips was recently published in this blog post published by our friends at The Switch Is On. We’re grateful to them for spreading the word!  

Join Green Change

To help more people go green, I founded Green Change, a climate action network devoted to sustainable living. For the past 6 years, I have led our all-volunteer team to produce free events and online content, serving thousands of people in Marin, the Bay Area and beyond.

We’re a growing community of climate champions, who promote the widespread use of clean energy, electric vehicles and home electrification, along with a general recommendation for everyone to “live lightly“: eat sustainably, grow your own food, do more with less, consume less, drive less, and fly less.

To learn more about the climate actions we recommend, I invite you to browse our helpful Action Guides and Green Tips from our community. And we invite you to subscribe to our quarterly newsletter, to stay in touch and get more green tips in your inbox.

You can also join other great climate groups in the Bay Area. For example, I started my sustainable journey with Resilient Neighborhoods, a nonprofit that helps Marin residents reduce their carbon footprints. I joined one of their inspiring climate action workshops in 2019, and they taught me much of what I know about sustainable living. If you live in Marin, I highly recommend you take their workshop. To find more local sustainability groups , I also invite you to visit the site of Sustainable Marin, our nonprofit fiscal sponsor.

If you don’t live in our area, look for a climate action group near you! Joining a local organization will help you learn and share information about living sustainably. Across the country, grassroots organizations of concerned citizens like you are working together with their city or county governments to help solve our climate crisis, wherever they live.

Spread the word

We share all this information because we want people to know that you can reduce your carbon emissions in just a few years. All these climate solutions are readily available, and it’s not rocket science. You just have to commit to take climate action, make a plan, and stick to it.

I invite you to share this page far and wide! Talking about climate action is one of the best ways we can help create a more just and sustainable world.

As you embark on your own sustainable journey, we also invite you to spread the word about the actions you take, to inspire members of your community to do the same. Be the change!

The way we see it, all our lives are at risk due to climate change. As our planet burns, now is the time for all of us to rise to the occasion, and lead by example, doing what it takes to make a big step forward to reduce our emissions, individually and collectively.

To solve this existential crisis, this is not the time to be timid and sit on the sidelines. We owe it to future generations to take climate action now, in our own lives.

Thanks to our partners

Many thanks to all the advisors and content providers who guided our electrification journey:

• Electrify Now

• Green Change

• HomeIntel

• Marin County Sustainability Team

• Redwood Energy

• Resilient Neighborhoods

• Rewiring America

• The Switch Is On

Kudos as well to our local contractors in Marin for taking us through the finish line:

• Clean Energy: MCE

• Solar/Battery: SunPower / Sun First Solar

• Heat Pumps: John Owens Services

• Electrical: Urban Energy

• Appliances: Martin & Harris

• EVs: Ride and Drive Clean

• Ebikes: New Wheel

And special thanks to our Green Change Team and our many climate partners who chimed in with advice – and who helped create our Action Guides and Green Tips on our GreenChange.net site. We couldn’t have done this without your support!

I’m particularly grateful to my wife Phyllis for joining me on this sustainable journey — and to my Green Change partners Tom Flynn, Al Grumet, Bridget Mazzini, Kevin Morrison, Marilyn Price and Anne-Christine Strugnell for being such wonderful guides all along the way. Thanks as well to Devin Ruy, our content associate from Rising Sun, for helping edit and publish this article.

Last but not least, good luck to all our readers with your own green projects! 😊

Learn more

Watch the videos and resources below to learn more about topics covered in this article:

• Our Marin Green Home Tour – Visit our home (Oct. 2023 – 8 mins.)

• Creating Your Green Home – Video of my talk (March 2025 – 40 mins.)

• Green Tips about Clean Energy – Read our Green Change guides and tips about clean energy

• Our Electrification Photos – View photos of our electrification journey (2024 – Google)

About Fabrice

Multimedia innovator Fabrice Florin has led the development of many pioneering projects in education, news and entertainment, working with a wide range of organizations such as Apple and Wikipedia.

The products and services he’s created over the years have helped millions of people play, learn and solve problems through art, media and technology — building community and driving social change through creative expression and civic engagement.

Fabrice now runs Green Change, a climate action network he founded to help people go green. They develop free events, online content and community services for thousands of climate champions in Marin and the Bay Area.

Previously, Fabrice was product and communication manager at Wikimedia Foundation, where he led the development of new tools to help users contribute productively on Wikipedia. His previous ventures include: NewsTrust, a nonprofit social news network devoted to good journalism; Shockwave, a web entertainment site at Macromedia; Apple Computer’s Multimedia Lab, a new media R&D group; and Videowest, a producer of rock journalism for ABC, MTV and public TV.

Learn more about Fabrice | Email Fabrice.

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Edited by Fabrice Florin and Devin Ruy. Photos by Fabrice Florin.