The purpose of this solicitation is to fund an applied research and development project that will support research to assess the impact of consolidated packages of electrified retrofit measures on air quality and other related impact categories, including resilience to extreme heat, indoor comfort, and energy and cost savings in California homes. This research will identify and assess non-energy benefits of home electrification and evaluate key stakeholders’ (e.g., residents, contractors) experience with the retrofitting process. Ultimately, this work will provide guidance on how these benefits could be considered in strategies and decisions to retrofit or replace gas-fueled appliances with electric.
The proposed research will use applied research to measure and delineate impacts of integrated market-available retrofits in residential buildings. The researchers may either install the retrofits as part of the project or leverage retrofits installed separately from the project. Retrofits may include mechanical ventilation improvements, insulation, electric cooking, electric water (including heat pumps) and space heating, electric vehicles, rooftop solar photovoltaic panels, and energy efficiency upgrades. Impacts of energy-related interventions (electrification and energy efficiency retrofits) will be studied in a diverse sample of households, including single and multifamily homes. This effort will target multiple policy objectives of decarbonization, equity, improved air quality and health outcomes, heat resilience, and affordability.
Research supported by the proposed solicitation aims to understand impacts of integrated packages of electrification retrofits and must include:
- A meaningful sample size (with a preference for larger samples) with a majority of homes in low-income and/or disadvantaged communities.
- A subset of homes in low-income and disadvantaged communities located near once-through cooling power plants whose operations were recently extended to 2026.
- Methodology to select the equipment to include in the retrofit package(s) that will be tested.
- Identification and development of metrics that evaluate air quality and other impacts such as comfort, heat resilience, and energy costs.
- Measurement of performance of new interventions on air quality and related impacts such as comfort, energy efficiency, heat resilience, and household energy costs before and after the installations.
- Process evaluation to understand what works and does not work for residents and contractors and how programs can be improved.
- Assessment of residents' experiences and perceptions regarding the retrofitting process and its impacts, from early stages through operations.
- Research to illuminate how to scale up an integrated retrofitting approach and the associated costs, barriers, and benefits of scaling up.
- Based on the field data and observations, articulation of strategies for:
- reducing cost and enhancing benefits of integrated retrofit packages in homes, especially for those in low-income and/or disadvantaged communities,
- communicating the non-energy benefits of building decarbonization, and
- best practices for stakeholders (residents, contractors, policymakers) to save energy and costs and to improve the indoor conditions that affect residents’ health and comfort.
Specific research projects may include:
- Partnership with California’s Equitable Building Decarbonization Program (California Energy Commission 2023), e.g., to recruit sample homes.
- Development and demonstration of a framework for recruiting households, selecting integrated retrofit upgrade packages, and installing integrated packages in a manner that targets improvements in air quality, energy efficiency, and heat resilience as well as the broader goal of electrification.
- Development and demonstration of pathways for retrofit upgrade implementation (e.g., rooftop solar, electric vehicles, and heat pump) that are economical for the residents.
- Assessment of individual electrification measures and their impacts on indoor and outdoor air quality.
- Quantification of the distribution of financial and energy burdens when switching from gas to electric appliances, including but not limited to households in low-income and/or disadvantaged communities.
Amount Available and Minimum/ Maximum Funding:
Up to $3,000,000 is available for grants awarded under this solicitation.
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