Eight Benefits of Building Electrification for Households, Communities, and Climate

The document outlines eight benefits of building electrification in the United States, asserting it is the only established way to eliminate carbon pollution from residential and commercial heating and cooking. It highlights that all-electric homes are cheaper to build than mixed-fuel homes, improve indoor air quality—particularly for children and marginalized communities—and can create millions of jobs. The text dismisses alternatives like renewable natural gas (RNG), hydrogen, and synthetic methane as too costly or limited in scale, while noting that nearly 60 percent of new US homes are already built all-electric.

• Building electrification is critical for meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, as 70 million US homes and businesses using gas, oil, and propane generate between 600 million and nearly 1 billion tons of CO2 equivalent annually.
• Gas appliances significantly degrade indoor air quality; homes with gas stoves exhibit nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations 50% to over 400% higher than those with electric stoves, and children in gas-stove homes are 42% more likely to suffer asthma symptoms.
• Constructing new all-electric single-family homes is more cost-effective than mixed-fuel homes because they avoid gas connection costs, which have a median price of nearly $9,000, and utilize more efficient heat pump systems.
• The transition to all-electric buildings, combined with solar and electric vehicles, could create up to 25 million near-term jobs and 5 million sustained jobs. In California specifically, electrification is projected to support over 100,000 jobs in construction, energy, and manufacturing.
• Alternatives to electrification, such as renewable natural gas (RNG), are insufficient for decarbonizing the buildings sector; RNG is 4 to 17 times more expensive than fossil gas and could only replace 3% to 12% of gas demand.

APA

RMI (2021). Eight Benefits of Building Electrification for Households, Communities, and Climate. https://rmi.org/resources/eight-benefits-of-building-electrification-for-households-communities-and-climate/

Chicago

RMI. Eight Benefits of Building Electrification for Households, Communities, and Climate. 2021. https://rmi.org/resources/eight-benefits-of-building-electrification-for-households-communities-and-climate/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Eight Benefits of Building Electrification for Households, Communities, and Climate |date=29 March 2021 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/eight-benefits-of-building-electrification-for-households-communities-and-climate/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2021eight, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Eight Benefits of Building Electrification for Households, Communities, and Climate}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2021}, month = mar, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/eight-benefits-of-building-electrification-for-households-communities-and-climate/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }