In 2021, our co-founder, DR, set out to electrify his home. While home electrification options – heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction stoves, etc. – had been around for decades, DR found it surprisingly difficult to go all-electric. Finding knowledgeable experts, understanding what to prioritize (and when), and determining what would have the biggest impact on climate and energy bills seemed impossible to understand, let alone solve.
So, DR and his friend Josh did what any good startup veteran would do: they built a business that solved the problem they had themselves.
Their initial research clarified that there we a few specific things that get in the way of successful home electrification:
Selecting the right equipment – choosing the right equipment that you can trust to perform efficiently for many years to come
Sizing the system – ensuring your system is appropriately sized to keep your home cozy – even on the coldest day of the year
Installing everything – lining up multiple different trades is no small feat
Wrangling rebates – identifying, maximizing, and securing the myriad rebates and incentives (getting this right can make a meaningful difference in the project cost!)
And before tackling any of that, drawing up a plan so you know where to start and where you’re going.
Over the past 2 years, here at Elephant Energy, we’ve been building a company and platform that does all of these things for our customers – starting with designing the overall plan itself.
The vision? Build the “easy button” for home electrification – so that we can accelerate this important work, giving every homeowner access to a climate-friendly home.
The Product
So, we are thrilled today to announce the launch of Your Electrification Roadmap!
Your Electrification Roadmap is your personal guide to making your home climate-friendly. With this tool, you can create a free electrification plan tailored to your unique home and goals – no matter where you live. It’s simple:
Tell us about your home. We want to hear about your current systems, your electrification goals, and any concerns you have.
We build Your Electrification Roadmap. We draw from the latest thinking in building science and lays out the steps you need to take to fully electrify, in the best order for you.
Explore and demystify the process. You can dive into the details of each step to learn more about the technology, approximate cost, and the resulting carbon reduction.
Get started! We make it easy to begin your electrification journey directly within the tool. Equipment installations are currently available in Colorado and Massachusetts, with additional markets opening in 2024.
This tool – which started out as a trial version last November – has grown and evolved substantially. But trust us, this is just the beginning.
Ready to get Your Electrification Roadmap? Get started here.
On a mission make your home climate-friendly? Stay tuned for tips and updates by subscribing to our newsletter.
Why this work matters
Why is it so important to start with a plan before diving in? It boils down to a single concept: proactive replacement. What the heck does that even mean? Well, think of it this way–most people (resources permitting) would not drive their car to the point of complete failure–think, the transmission quite literally giving out on the highway. But with home appliances, this is the norm. It’s way too easy to ignore the “stuff” that’s tucked away in the corners and closets of your home – that is, until it’s not working at all.
Avoiding Emergency Situations
Picture it. It’s one of the coldest days in December, your in-laws are visiting, and…your gas furnace gives out. You’ve been thinking for months about how you want to upgrade to a heat pump. But now you’re in an impossible position: an electrician isn’t available to run new wiring for at least a month, your HVAC contractor isn’t quite sure what size heat pump you need, your in-laws are complaining about freezing in the house, and you don’t even know how much all of this is going to cost! So instead, you go with your HVAC technician’s tried and true recommendation – another gas furnace – just to make it all go away, fast. And just like that, another 20 years of fossil fuel emissions are locked in – by someone who originally intended to electrify.
The Holistic Approach to Electrification
The point is, the industry isn’t equipped to deal with emergency replacements yet. There’s too much interest and demand to accommodate last-minute work right now. And, understanding what equipment you need, if your upgrades require new electrical wiring or a service upgrade, and how to pay for all of this work takes time and thought. Especially if your goal is whole-home electrification, you need to think about your home holistically… so that all the pieces of the puzzle fit neatly together in the end.
Contributing to a Sustainable Solution
The built environment is responsible for 40% of global carbon emissions every year. Every year! As homeowners, we have a unique opportunity to be part of the solution. Reducing our personal emissions matters. And, it starts with a plan.
Beginnings are tough—whether it’s writing that first draft or moving to a new city, the hardest part often lies in knowing where to start. This can be especially true when it comes to home electrification. Electrifying your home is a big project with many potential routes to take, so picking a place to begin can be, well, overwhelming. That’s where our new product, Your Electrification Roadmap (YER), comes in.
More than just a product, it’s our vision to be the “easy button” for upgrading to a climate-friendly home. With YER, we create a personalized roadmap that is tailored specifically to your home and your goals. Our objective? Make the process of becoming climate-friendly seamless and hassle-free.
But we recognize you may find yourself wondering – how did they arrive at this recommendation? In this blog post, we’ll delve into the methodology behind the logic that guides our suggested routing steps and the metrics that fill up your electrification progress bar. Our aim is to equip you with a comprehensive understanding of how YER can shape your electrification journey from beginning to end, with Elephant Energy guiding you every step of the way. Let’s dive in!
Routing Logic: Guiding Principles for Sustainable Living
The order of the steps on Your Electrification Roadmap is guided by four fundamental principles: (1) fixing what’s broken, (2) building science best practices, (3) your preferences, and (4) reaching the end goal: a climate-friendly home.
Let’s break down even further why these principles are considered in the order that they are:
1. Fix What’s Broken:
Fixing any broken systems in your home is the first priority. Promptly restoring essential functionalities like hot water supply ensures comfort and convenience while still working to reduce your carbon emissions.
2. Building Science Best Practices:
Our next important focus revolves around adhering to the best practices in building science. This involves services such as weatherization and solar integration, but why is this so important? Let’s take a look.
Weatherization:
We advocate (strongly!) for weatherization as the first step towards electrification. No matter how you heat your home, you’ll want to consider weatherization. Weatherization is the process of modifying a building to reduce energy consumption and optimize energy efficiency. How? Typically, it entails adding insulation and air sealing. Both measures enable you to heat and cool your home in the most efficient way possible.
Solar integration:
To ensure optimal solar integration, we place solar installations towards the end of your roadmap. This approach provides a better understanding of your full electrical load before recommending the most suitable solar system. Wondering why you should electrify before installing solar? Take a look at our previous blog post, Heat Pump Before Solar Panels: Why It’s the Smart Choice, to learn more. If you already have solar panels, our routing logic assumes that your electrical needs are fully covered. In some instances, however, it may be the case that you need to increase your array to meet the needs of a fully electrified home.
Optional electrical service upgrade:
While we may suggest an optional electrical service upgrade in some cases, in most instances, it’s not necessary – that’s especially true where the electrical capacity is already 125 amps or more. In homes with less than 125 amps, we try to offer creative and budget-friendly solutions designed for your home, aiming to make electrification possible without immediately opting for an upgrade.
3. Homeowner Preference:
We have two main priorities when it comes to you, the homeowner: understanding your preferences and fitting within your budget. If you’re enthusiastic about adopting specific electrified systems, like a heat pump, we try to prioritize those choices to kickstart your electrification journey (unless we believe there is a more important step that you should take first, like weatherization!). If your budget is guiding where you’d like to start, then we take that into consideration too. Our approach is all about aligning with your needs while also doing what we think is best for both you and the planet.
4. Reaching The End Goal: A Climate-Friendly Home:
We aim to provide a comprehensive roadmap for transitioning off of all fossil fuel systems, even if you don’t place to tackle those steps until later on. Additionally, we encourage proactive replacement of older systems with electrified alternatives to increase your home’s sustainability. Our ultimate goal is to guide you toward full electrification, ensuring no stone is left unturned on your path to sustainable living.
Curious as to why this is so important? Read our case for accelerating home electrification here.
The Methodology Behind The Metrics: Electrification Progress and Carbon Footprint
With YER, we introduce two critical metrics: Electrification Progress and Carbon Footprint. These metrics are interconnected and represent two key aspects of sustainable living in your home.
Electrification Progress
There’s a lot wrapped up in the question, “how far along am I in my electrification journey?” (or perhaps more importantly… “how much further do I have to go?”). To help you gain clarity, we designed a progress bar at the top of Your Electrification Roadmap. As you electrify more of the things in your home the progress bar fills up towards 100%. We want to make sure you understand how it’s getting there.
Electrification Progress is a directional metric that measures how close you are to achieving whole-home electrification. We’ve designed a points-based system to calculate your progress. We categorize systems in your home into small, medium, and large groupings based on cost, size, and installation time. Each electrified system earns you points (L=4, M=2, S=1), while non-electrified systems receive 0 points.
In addition, we exclude any systems that may not be relevant to your home; for example, if your home does not have a fireplace, then we exclude that system from the point calculation entirely – so that your progress bar accurately reflects the electrification opportunities within your unique home. The below table depicts the criteria used to determine the size of the given system:
NOTE: Some systems may fall into various buckets based on the above criteria. In those instances, we’ve selected the “size” it most closely matches.
To determine your Electrification Progress, we divide the sum of points for all your electrified systems by the total potential points if you electrified all your systems. This metric provides a clear and tangible measure of your journey towards a climate-friendly home.
Carbon Footprint:
Your Carbon Footprint represents the annual carbon emissions resulting from operating your home’s systems. This metric considers the metric tons of carbon released during the operation of each system.
To calculate your Carbon Footprint, we sourced data from the EPA on residential energy usage for the year 2020, averaged across all states. For systems still reliant on fossil fuels, such as a gas heater, we apply the average emission data to calculate your carbon footprint. We also consider a baseline electricity usage for things like lighting and refrigeration. If you have a rooftop or community solar, we offset the carbon footprint of electrified systems, assuming your solar array fully covers your electricity needs.
Wrapping Up:
We are so excited to share Your Electrification Roadmap with you, and hope that you find it to be a helpful tool in starting (or continuing) your journey to a climate-friendly home. We’re here to support you every step of the way!
We’re always learning and appreciate your feedback, so if you have any thoughts about how we could make this better, please let us know! And , if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us here.
– Ready to get started? Click here to get Your Electrification Roadmap, personalized specifically to you and your home’s needs.
At Elephant Energy, our goal is to help you create a comfortable and sustainable home. That’s why we’re thrilled to share our ultimate guide to Mass Save rebates, designed to make your journey to energy efficiency easier and more affordable.
We are excited to introduce our new trusted partner, RENU! With RENU, we now offer low-cost financing for all of our projects. Starting at 3.5% and zero-money down, RENU makes it more affordable than ever to invest in electric home upgrades for your home!
What is RENU?
The Colorado Residential Energy Upgrade (“RENU”) Loan is a statewide residential loan program sponsored by the Colorado Clean Energy Fund. It makes home upgrades easy and affordable with low-cost, long-term financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements.
RENU helps homeowners save money on their energy bills by improving energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption. RENU-eligible home upgrades also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
What Home Upgrades Qualify?
Qualifying home upgrades include: heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction stoves, electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, efficiency & weatherization upgrades, and ventilation & indoor air quality controls.
Who Qualifies?
To qualify for RENU, homeowners must both own a single-family or multi-family home in Colorado and meet certain income requirements. The loan amount and terms depend on the borrower’s specific energy upgrades and creditworthiness.
How Can Homeowners Apply?
To apply for RENU, homeowners must complete an application and provide relevant documentation such as proof of income, proof of ownership, and a detailed list of their selected home upgrades. A loan officer will review the application and determine whether the borrower is eligible for the loan.
Our friendly team at Elephant Energy will be with you every step of the way to streamline financing with RENU as well as rebate optimization through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentives (we have a guide on that, here!) We will help you achieve the best home upgrades with the lowest possible price tag.
To learn more about our team and mission, click here. To learn more about RENU Financing, visit their website here.
Fueled by the Inflation Reduction Act, innovative Colorado-based climate tech company is scaling its platform designed to make electrification upgrades seamless.
BOULDER, Colo., November 30, 2022 –Elephant Energy, the leading home electrification platform for homeowners and contractors, recently closed a $3.5M seed round led by Building Ventures, with participation from Daniel Gulati, Workshop, Reuben Munger, and others.
Elephant Energy was founded in 2021 to simplify residential electrification – said differently, make it easy for homeowners to get off of gas. Home-electrification projects are notoriously difficult, as they require the coordination of multiple trades, and very few contractors have the necessary expertise. Elephant Energy is building a two-sided marketplace that will make electrification approachable for both homeowners and contractors.
The company’s technology platform is grounded in building science and enables Elephant Energy to manage the implementation of electrification projects, from tip to tail. Customers receive a personalized roadmap that illustrates the path to full home electrification – all at once, or over time. Then, Elephant Energy handles equipment selection and system design and orchestrates the installation process, which is completed by a network of vetted contractors. The company also helps homeowners secure financing and maximize the mosaic of incentives available from various sources, including utilities players and government funding.
Beginning in January, the Inflation Reduction Act will allow homeowners to deduct up to $2,000 from their taxes for electric upgrades, making it more affordable than ever to replace old furnaces, water heaters, and gas stoves with efficient electric heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction stoves, and more. That’s on top of rebates of up to $4,000 already available locally in markets like Colorado, where Elephant Energy operates.
Heather Widman, partner at Building Ventures, commented, “The climate impact of residential electrification is massive, but the process has been complicated and challenging to navigate for even the most determined homeowners. Elephant Energy’s platform provides a streamlined, approachable solution that will unlock these home renovation projects at scale — enabling the widespread electrification we need at this critical time.”
Elephant Energy Co-founder DR Richardson said, “Home electrification is a win-win-win: more comfortable for homeowners, healthier for humans, and better for the environment. The IRA incentives coming online next year will be the rocket fuel that takes electrification mainstream.”
The funds will be used for hiring, product development, and expansion within and beyond Colorado. “This capital raise will allow us to dramatically scale home electrification and accelerate the transition to a cleaner future,” Richardson added.
###
About Elephant Energy
Founded by DR Richardson and Josh Lake in 2021, Elephant Energy is a climate tech company on a mission to electrify everything, starting with homes. The company’s platform uses building science expertise and proprietary technology to help homeowners confidently upgrade their home appliances to modern electric technologies, lowering carbon emissions in the process. Elephant Energy currently serves the Boulder-Denver metro area, with additional markets opening in 2023. Learn more at elephantenergy.com.
Josh Lake & David Richardson – Elephant Energy Founders – November 2022
We’re on a mission to build a sustainable planet by electrifying everything, starting with homes.
Why? Because humans have a narrow window of about 10 years to make real progress on the energy transition before our planet becomes unrecognizable. Electrifying Everything in our homes (think space heating, water heating, clothes drying, and cooking) is a keystone of the decarbonization puzzle, though so far this space is what we often largely overlook. We started Elephant Energy with a clear purpose: dramatically accelerate progress towards full residential electrification.
So, how did we get here?
Rewind to 2007. We met working at a strategy consulting firm in Boston, but left within two years as we both wanted to dedicate our careers to a more impactful mission than advising large telecom and media companies. For both of us, our mission’s focus is on the environment and the energy transition. DR went on to build a sustainable investment firm, and Josh became a climatetech 1.0 entrepreneur/operator.
Since that time (26 years, combined!), we have invested in and built companies at the forefront of the Electrify Everything movement: solar energy, electric vehicles, energy efficiency, and more. And through this work, it’s become clear to us that there are Four Pillars to the Clean Energy Transition. In order to reach net zero by 2050, we must:
Deploy (much!) more wind and solar (rooftop and utility-scale).
Manage the volatility of wind and solar (the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow).
Transition 100% of new vehicle sales to EVs (kick that gas habit).
Transition 100% of new building appliances to electric (#ElectrifyEverything — think heating/cooling, water heating, cooking, etc.).
Now what?
If we can do those four things over the next 10 years, we will be on a path to reduce carbon emissions by more than 75% and thus we will have a fighting chance at staving off the worst impacts of climate change. Otherwise, other emerging tech (green hydrogen, carbon capture and sequestration, etc), won’t matter because it will be too late. If we don’t meaningfully accelerate the pace of our progress against these four pillars now, our planet will look very different in as little as 10 years.
Of the above pillars, the #ElectrifyEverything movement is by far the biggest laggard and contributes about one-third of total carbon emissions. The crazy thing is, there is no reason to wait: we already have all of the hardware and technology we need to electrify homes: heat pumps, induction stoves, rooftop solar, electric vehicles and heat pump water heaters. And these electric technologies are truly better for consumers: more comfortable, more affordable, healthier, and safer.
So far, a platform does not exist at scale that meaningfully reduces carbon emissions from homes. With this in mind, we are building Elephant Energy — a company on a mission to tackle this overlooked sector and #ElectrifyEverything, starting with homes. Climate change is the elephant in the room, and we can’t afford to wait.
Why should we Electrify Everything?
Today, most water and homes are heated with natural “fossil” gas (aka the super potent greenhouse gas methane) or other fossil fuels (propane, fuel oil, etc.). Most vehicles are powered by gasoline and diesel. And most of our outdoor appliances and power tools run on gasoline.
There is a better way. We must Electrify … Everything! And FAST!
Let’s break it down:
The “Motor”
The first step is upgrading the “stuff” we use everyday. At Elephant Energy, we’re specifically focused on the infrastructure and technologies (HVAC and appliances) that power our homes (some of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels). Converting these systems is particularly challenging because it relies on convincing each individual homeowner — there are 121 million homes in the United States alone — to make the choice to switch and upgrade to all electric appliances.
Let’s define Electrify Everything:
Electrify → Replacing something that consumes fossil fuels (gasoline, diesel, propane, fuel oil, methane / natural “fossil” gas, etc.) with an electric version.
Everything → Heating systems, water heaters, clothes dryers, vehicles, and stoves. And lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and even chainsaws.
The “Power House”
In parallel, we need to “Cleanify” the energy sources powering Everything by transitioning to 100% renewable (and nuclear) energy. You may have heard this referred to as “greening the grid.” When we both Cleanify and Electrify, we massively reduce carbon emissions.
A question that some folks have when they think about this is, “Why does it matter if we transition to all electric appliances, if we don’t yet have 100% clean energy to fuel them with?” To that we say, – Electrifying in and of itself is still critical! Even with the energy mix of our current grid, modern electric systems would emit less carbon than their natural gas counterparts in nearly every U.S. household. Electric technologies are also much more efficient, as they consume less than one third of the energy that gas systems require.
And, every new fossil gas appliance that is installed (instead of electric) locks in another 15 years of higher emissions. Last, as we continue to Cleanify our energy sources, electric technology’s ability to reduce carbon will only be amplified.
Electrifying Everything has many other benefits that can greatly improve our daily lives. Here are just a few.
Direct benefits to homeowners:
Cost savings – electric appliances are significantly less expensive to operate, resulting in thousands of dollars of cost savings to homeowners.
Increased home comfort – fewer hot and cold spots and less noise.
Improved indoor air quality – burning methane in your home (including your fossil gas-powered stove!) leads to 42% higher rates of childhood asthma.
Reduced noise pollution – we’re looking at you, old HVAC units and gas leaf blowers!
Increased peace of mind – you get to sleep easier knowing that you’ve made a decision that supports progress on the climate transition.
Broader societal / environmental benefits:
Further reduced methane emissions – by minimizing the production of natural gas, thus reducing leakage from both fracking and pipelines.
Energy independence – deploying wind turbines and solar panels locally reduces our dependence on foreign energy.
What We Need: A Scalable Platform, Purpose-Built to Electrify Everything
We’re building something unique: a team, culture, MOVEMENT, and platform that will unlock the Electrification of Everything. We just raised $3.5M from a great group of investors who believe in our vision and will help us scale our early successes.
Electrification requires the coordination of multiple trades — HVAC, plumbing, electrical — and other specialty contractors like drywall, insulation, and air sealing. We’re bringing it all under one roof to radically simplify the process for homeowners. No more pain from vetting and organizing multiple contractors. We help you design a system to meet your individual goals and needs, maximize incentives/rebates, manage the install and permits, and even offer financing
Software Tools to Simplify The Process:
Our digital-first experience makes it easy to streamline and simplify the process of upgrading your home. Our tools enable our contractor partners to electrify better, using building science to make better decisions instead of relying on typical contractor “rules of thumb.” And once projects are operational, we’re here to ensure the optimal performance of your systems via our monitoring and service platform.
Your Home’s Electrification Roadmap:
Electrify your home all at once — or over time. Most of your home’s systems don’t need to be replaced simultaneously. Instead, we help you create a custom roadmap for your home, so that you can electrify as your systems age and become ready for retirement. This allows you to avoid the midnight emergency water heater replacements that always leave you wondering if you’re getting ripped off. Instead, you can be proactive and make the best decisions for your home and your family.
Curious about your home’s electrification roadmap? Get yours here.
How we’re approaching it:
Great People and Partners:
There’s just something different when you show up for work every day with a greater purpose in mind. Our team and the community of teams we partner with care deeply about the climate, making modern electric technologies accessible and affordable, and having fun.
Operational Excellence:
We are committed to bringing down the cost of installations and improving the homeowner experience through better solution design, internal systems, and processes. Our motto is always be learning! #ABL
Build a Movement:
In the wild, elephants are the trailblazers — their travel clears the paths for others who follow behind them. This is what we are doing here at Elephant Energy: showing every day that electrification can be done, that it can be done at scale, and that we can lead the wayby helping homeowners design their own paths.
And when we’re successful?
There is real impact to be had!
Millions of outdated fossil gas technologies recycled (and many fossil gas systems entirely capped).
Millions of homeowners benefiting from comfortable and healthy all-electric homes.
Millions of good-paying jobs in the trades.
A national brand radically simplifying home upgrades.
And … a MASSIVE dent in climate change by directly eliminating millions of tons of emissions.
We’ve built our careers around the idea that change only happens through the collective effort of stubborn problem-solving. We want to have a HUGE IMPACT. And we firmly believe that transitioning to electric technologies is a win-win-win: better for our planet, our health, and our homes.
We’re super proud of the team we’ve built, the homeowners we’ve helped electrify, and the installer-partners who have helped us deliver projects. But, this is just the beginning. It’s time to build!
Your partners in electrification,
–Josh & DR
Join the Herd: If you are a homeowner interested in transitioning from fossil fuels to modern electric technologies, a future employee looking to make a leap in their career, or a future contractor-partner hoping to evolve and grow your business, please email us at hello@ElephantEnergy.com! #JoinTheHerd #ElectrifyEverything
Winter is coming, and with it a stack of “pancaking” gas-heating rate hikes.New federal cost incentives for home electric installations kick in in January.
BOULDER, CO, Nov. 14, 2022 – Winter is coming, and home-electrification experts locally and nationally are urging homeowners to go electric — as a spike in home gas heating prices coincides with unprecedented new incentives for modern home systems from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Elephant Energy, a Front Range home-electrification provider, is expanding its team and service area in the run-up to 2023 to meet expected demand and recommends homeowners start planning now to go electric in the new year.
This winter, Coloradans’ natural gas heating bills are expected to be double what they were just three years ago, based on U.S. Energy Information Administration data and projections. Natural gas prices are at a 15-year high, and public utilities have been piling on, or “pancaking” rate hikes for years with no sign of stopping.
At the same time, beginning in January, the IRA will allow homeowners to deduct up to $2,000 from their taxes for electric upgrades, making it more affordable than ever to replace old furnaces, water heaters and gas stoves with efficient electric heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, induction stoves and more. That’s on top of rebates of up to $4,000 already available locally.
“Now is the time to go electric,” Elephant Energy co-founder DR Richardson said. “If your furnace or water heater is 10-15 years old, you should be thinking about upgrading now. Don’t wait until something breaks in the middle of the winter, and you get stuck installing inefficient, last-generation equipment that you have to live with for another decade.”
There are myriad benefits to upgrading from old, gas-burning systems. Upgrading lowers monthly utility bills by hundreds of dollars per year, improves air quality in homes by eliminating harmful particulates from burning gas, and dramatically reduces a home’s carbon footprint. Switching to electric costs less up front than replacing a traditional furnace and air conditioner, and every installation involves a tax credit, rebate, or other incentive.
Jules Kortenhorst is an international expert on energy transition and most recently served as CEO of RMI, an independent, non-partisan, nonprofit organization of energy experts. “Burning gas in buildings is not only a threat to climate action but also to human health, as gas appliances are sources of indoor air pollution,” Kortenhorst said. “The good news is, Coloradans will find that it’s easier than ever to make the switch, and there are significant cost savings to be gained.”
Modern electric technology is efficient, but navigating the installation process on your own isn’t. Elephant Energy is a one-stop shop that uses deep building science and proprietary technology to make it easy for homeowners to confidently go electric. After designing a home-specific roadmap for a customer, Elephant Energy manages every step of the installation process – including applying available tax credits and rebates – to deliver all the benefits of modern, electric upgrades for the best value.
As the nonprofit Rewiring America recently wrote, “It’s important to acknowledge the hardship of this heightened energy burden that will be felt by so many this winter. But it’s incumbent on us to get the facts right. The best solution is to electrify. As quickly and thoroughly as possible.”
Serving the Denver-Boulder corridor since 2021, Elephant Energy is expanding into Fort Collins, with additional markets opening next year. The startup closed on a $3.5M seed round of funding in September 2022, led by Building Ventures, with participation from Daniel Gulati of Treble, and others.
Founded by DR Richardson and Josh Lake in 2021, Elephant Energy is on a mission to build the ecosystem needed to scale residential electrification across millions of homes in Colorado and throughout the United States. The company’s platform provides homeowners and contractors with the resources to diagnose, convert, install, and service modern electrical systems, including heat pumps, hybrid heat pump water heaters, induction stoves, and electric vehicle chargers. Learn more at elephantenergy.com.
We installed our second electric Heat Pump in Boulder, CO to help a customer solve their home comfort issues! Huzzah! Did you know that we can install smaller mini split heat pumps too?
Here’s the finished outdoor condenser. For this project, we went with a 3 ton Bosch system rated for cold weather.
And here’s the air handler downstairs in the crawlspace
TL;DR: Heat Pump installations are complex and customized. Find great, experienced contractors who know what they’re doing and run a great process to ensure good design, safety, and success. It makes a HUGE difference.
#1 Plan early & design thoughtfully! A “Heat Pump” is more than just a condenser + air handler. You likely also need refrigerant lines, refrigerant, a compatible thermostat/wiring, 240V electrical circuits, condensate pumps/drains, pipe insulation, risers, mounts, and more.
Connecting the ducts takes some real skill – building airtight connections that are built to last
When in doubt, “RTFM”! = Read the Freaking Manual. Each manufacturer is a bit different and thus each install takes a bit of on-site customization and problem solving.
#2 A good installation and commissioning process catches oversights (and mistakes, like a missing thermostat wire). A good contractor will have a lengthy commissioning document to ensure the installation has been done right and the system is functioning appropriately.
3rd: Go above and beyond customer expectations.
Demolition (though fun) produces a lot of debris: old duct work, screws, wire insulation, dirty condensate water, the furnace itself, flues, cardboard boxes, etc. Leaving the customer home cleaning than you found it is an A+ – and almost no one gets an A+. Cleaning up takes time but is a must for a great customer experience.
But it is all worth it to help customers with home comfort, improve their lives and air quality, and make an impact on the environment. That’s one more gas furnace replaced with an electric heat pump!!!
Are you in need of upgrading you home’s heating and cooling / air conditioning system? Get in touch to see if a heat pump or mini split heat pump will work for you (hint: they work for everyone!). Elephant Energy specializes in modernizing homes with the latest, greatest, energy-efficient technology. We upgrade homes to maximize home comfort, air quality, and energy efficiency, with heat pumps, mini-splits, induction ranges, EV chargers, and air filtration.
Contact us to learn more about your heat pump installation today!
More Hot Water – As the family has grown, the water demands have increased so we installed a larger tank. Hot showers for everyone! And maybe the occasional bath. Treat yo’self!
Increased Safety – Added a thermal mixing valve (aka anti-scalding device) to protect kids from burns . Also added a thermal expansion tank to reduce the risk of over-pressurizing the tank.
Enhanced Control – Onboard thermometer allows you to control the temperature in the tank . Plus put the unit in “vacation” mode so you aren’t heating water when you’re away .
More Resilient – Anti-Leak guard w/ automatic shutoff in the event of a leak = peace of mind that your home won’t flood .
Lower Operating Costs – This beast is 3x+ more efficient than non-heat pump water heaters. Reduce the amount of money you send to fossil gas fracking by $100s per year .
More Flexible – You can choose how quickly and efficiently water is heated by toggling between high demand (faster, less efficient heating with electric heat strip) vs. normal demand (slower, more efficient heating with the heat pump). or
Smarter – Ever wondered how much your water heater was costing you? With the app, you can see your energy usage (data!) and know for sure how much that 25 min shower is costing you.
Cost Savings – In Boulder, Colorado, there are ~$2,000 in rebates and incentives for transitioning away from “natural” aka fossil gas to the BETTER electric heat pump units.
If any of these speak to you, we’d love to help YOU with water heater repair and upgrade your home with a new heat pump water heater! Elephant Energy is your go-to source for energy-efficient upgrades to your home. We make homes more efficient, cleaner, and more comfortable with heat pumps, mini-splits, EV chargers, induction ranges, and air quality improvements. Contact us for a quote today!
Induction – Junction, What’s Your Function? Induction Stove Install
Following @curious_founder’s awesome research on gas stoves, we’ve seen a significant increase in interest in induction stove and ranges. Fun install in mid January where we got to swap out a gas range for a new, ultra-efficient, modern induction range. #electrifyeverything
Removing a gas cooktop and replacing it with induction stove on the surface requires simply removing the old unit, dropping in the new one, and capping the gas line.
Behind the scenes though, it can require a lot more – especially to get the electrical wiring right!
Running electrical often means cutting into drywall. And then patching it up.
And, before you know it, now you’re cooking with an induction stove! It’s the most efficient, precise, and SAFE way to cook. Plus, cleaning is a breeze! Read more: http://switchison.org/cooking
If you are #InductionCurious, get in touch to see if this upgrade is the right fit for you and your home. Elephant Energy helps homeowners get energy-efficient upgrades to make your home cleaner and comfortable. We specialize in energy efficiency projects, heat pumps, mini-splits, induction ranges, and EV chargers.
