{"id":323263,"date":"2023-04-21T08:40:59","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/?p=323263"},"modified":"2023-04-21T08:40:59","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:40:59","slug":"la-mesa-resident-electrifies-home-saving-money-and-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/la-mesa-resident-electrifies-home-saving-money-and-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"La Mesa resident electrifies home, saving money and the planet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">With global carbon emissions on the rise, one La Mesa resident has taken a new approach to providing electricity to her home.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Buildings are responsible for nearly one third of energy-related CO2 emissions in the United States, making decarbonization a necessary step to combating climate change. Wendy Mihalic, a longtime La Mesa resident, has done one of the most important factors of decarbonization: electrification.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Building electrification just means swapping out gas appliances for electric appliances. It\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d Mihalic said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">She first learned about electrification when she joined the San Diego 350 group as a volunteer. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The nonprofit, which aims to prevent the worst impacts of climate change through education and outreach, was looking for solutions to greenhouse gas emissions others had put in place. In doing this research, they found that cities in Northern California were considering electrifying buildings.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Buildings can emit up to a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions in the state,\u201d Mihalic explained. \u201cSo, we at <a href=\"https:\/\/sandiego350.org\/\">San Diego 350<\/a> were looking at what our northern brethren were doing and saying, hey, we should be doing that all across the state.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_323268\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-323268\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-323268 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.sdnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20230421083522\/thumbnail_induction-cooktop-pic-2-lmc-300x225.jpeg\" alt=\"thumbnail induction cooktop pic 2 lmc\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.sdnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20230421083522\/thumbnail_induction-cooktop-pic-2-lmc-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.sdnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20230421083522\/thumbnail_induction-cooktop-pic-2-lmc-16x12.jpeg 16w, https:\/\/cdn.sdnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20230421083522\/thumbnail_induction-cooktop-pic-2-lmc.jpeg 640w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/225;\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-323268\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wendy Mihalic and her family continued making changes to lower costs and help the environment, including installing an induction cooktop. (Courtesy photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Mihalic began incorporating decarbonizing her home in 2015 when the family stopped using their gas clothes dryer. Then, in 2020, they took the next step toward electrification when their water heater needed to be replaced. They hired a local company that could do plumbing and HVAC services, leading them to replace two major gas systems in their home. They continued to make electrical upgrades, including installing an induction cooktop. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">This, combined with their solar panels, resulted in the Mihalics not having to pay anything for their electricity. SDG&amp;E has recently removed their gas meter.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I hope others will follow, if not for their own health, then for their pocketbook or for the general environment and well-being of the planet,\u201d Mihalic added.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Mihalic recommended a few resources for those who want to incorporate electrification into their own homes.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">One website, <\/span><\/span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/switchison.org\/\"><span style=\"color: #1155cc;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>The Switch is On<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">, provides information, resources, and tools to support homeowners as they move to electrification. The site also helps users search for contractors who can do this work. Another useful website is <\/span><\/span><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/rewiringamerica\/\"><span style=\"color: #1155cc;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Rewiring America<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">, a nonprofit which helps users find electrification rebates to fund their home projects.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With global carbon emissions on the rise, one La Mesa resident has taken a new approach to providing electricity to her home. Buildings are responsible for nearly one third of energy-related CO2 emissions in the United States, making decarbonization a necessary step to combating climate change. Wendy Mihalic, a longtime La Mesa resident, has done [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1508,"featured_media":323267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15437],"tags":[15827,12391,12421],"class_list":["post-323263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-mesa-courier-features","tag-electrification","tag-environment","tag-la-mesa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1508"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323263"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323271,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323263\/revisions\/323271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}