California and many other are moving towards electrifying all or as much residential energy use as possible in an effort to curb greenhouse gas production and slow down global climatic change. Even the City of Chico has jumped on board of the electrification train with its latest Climate Action Plan. While it is a valiant effort, it is too late, and maybe too little. Scientists made it clear back in the 1970’s that once the greenhouse effect gets moving the flywheel effect will keep it going even if greenhouse gas production was eliminated.

Residential energy use is not the leading cause of greenhouse gas production, our transportation systems are. The biggest reductions in greenhouse gasses (GHGs) will happen with transportation and not by replacing our gas stoves, furnaces, and water heaters with electric ones. Despite the late start, electrifying all of our appliances may help, and it can’t hurt, right? 

Electrification is the process of replacing natural gas and propane fueled appliances and replacing them with their electrical counterparts. Gas appliances are dedicated to producing heat, so all these appliances have to be replaced with electric heat producing appliances. In the thermodynamic world converting electrical energy to heat energy (thermal electricity) is the worst use and the highest cost way to produce useable heat unless 100% of the electrical source is with renewable technologies.  

The 1960’s was the heyday of electricity. Builders promoted “All Electric Gold Medallion Homes” in their sales pitches and proudly placarded homes with golden medallions. Utility companies bragged that electricity was “too cheap to meter” and electric rates went down the more you used. Global warming was over the horizon. 

Back in the 1960’s to my family’s modest three-bedroom home had several electrical devices (actually five (5) electrical appliances and nine (9) electrical devices) besides electric light bulbs (20 lamps total). Our home’s electrical appliances included a refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, and forced-air furnace. In the kitchen electrical devices included the a garbage disposal, toaster, and the heavy duty mixer my mother used for all kinds of things. A blender showed up on the counter one day that allowed us to make blended Ovaltine milk drinks.

Growing up in the 60’s we all took turns washing the dishes by hand. As my family grew to eleven my mother insisted on having a dishwasher. There was no room for a built-in dishwasher in our kitchen cabinetry because they weren’t a common appliance, so the one we had was portable and rolled around so that it could be hooked up to the sink when needed. That was it for electric appliances in the kitchen.

Entertainment centers were non-existent or extremely simple. We had a HiFi Stereo AM/FM/Turntable counsel on which my mother listened to big band music during the day and occasionally played one of her ten LP records (musicals such as My Fair Lady, the Music Man, the Sound of Music, and Mary Poppins). A black and white TV graced our living room and we children were plopped down in front of it (the youngest were housed in a playpen) after we got home from school to give my mother the space she needed to get dinner ready. My parents didn’t get a color TV until the mid 70’s after I no longer lived at home. One of my father’s dreams was to be able to watch the Rose Parade on New Years Day in color. 

Other electrical appliances in our home included the clothes washer and gas dryer (electric motor); two electric alarm clocks (my parents had one and I had the other one since I had to get up earlier than anyone else (5:30 AM) to ride my bike to church to be an altar boy by for the 6:00 AM morning mass). As my sisters became teenagers, hair dryers and curling irons were purchased but not much else in terms of electrical appliances.

Air conditioning nonexistent in track homes in Southern California. Only the the most expensive custom-built homes had them. Our uninsulated house was equipped with a forced-air gas furnace that my father didn’t turn on until Thanksgiving every year and shut off by Valentine’s Day. The climate in Southern California didn’t require much heating and we got used to hot summer days and cool summer nights when the ocean breeze blew the smog and fog in from Los Angeles.

In all there was a little more than a dozen electrical appliances (14 devices) and 20 light bulbs (incandescent lamps) in our home. Today I have more electrical devices just in my home office than there was in my home when I was growing up. They include the desktop computer/monitor, two printers (one photo quality and the other a general printer for documents), flat-bed scanner, four back-up hard drives (to back up my more than 250,000 digital images and videos), charging station with chargers for my camera batteries, drone batteries, my iPhone, my iPad, document shredder, mesh router, clock radio, desk lamp, ceiling fan/light.

My kitchen today is not overly endowed with gadgets, yet it has a refrigerator/freezer, blender, food processor, hand-held mixer, Bullet blender, electric induction tea kettle, coffee maker, undercabinet clock radio, toaster oven, microwave oven, gas convection oven, pressure cooker, dishwasher, and ceiling fan.

Instead of my parents’ HiFi and Black & White TV my entertainment system includes a 48” color LED TV, CD/DVD player, tuner/amp, VHS/DVD player, powered sound bar and subwoofer, an Apple TV, cable set-top box, and two Apple Home Pod speakers. Where the HiFi had one plug to power the entire system my system requires 8 plug-ins. 

Below is an inventory of electrical appliances, devices, and lighting that were in my home in 1970 when I lived with my family of eleven (nine children and two adults) compared to the electrical appliances and devices present in the home I lived in today (2022) with just one person

1972 Residential Electric Appliances, Devices, and Lighting Inventory

Kitchen 1972

• Refrigerator/freezer
• Dishwasher (portable)
• Garbage disposal
• Toaster
• Mixer
• Blender
• Exhaust fan (ceiling)
• Ceiling fixture (2-lamp, 100 watts ea)
• Over-sink fixture (1-lamp, 100 watt)
• Dining area fixture (2- lamp, 100 watts ea)

HVAC 1972

• Forced-air Gas Furnace (100,000 BTUs with fan)

Home Office 1972

• Non-existent

Living Room 1972

• B&W TV
• HiFi Stereo/turntable/AM-FM counsel radio
• Table lamp
• Ceiling fixture (2 lamps)

Bedroom Main 1972

• Clock
• Ceiling fixture (two lamps)

Bedrooms 1972 (2)

• Clock radio (1)
• Ceiling fixtures (2, 2-lamp)

Bathrooms 1972 (2)

• Vanity fixtures (2, 2-lamp)

Garage 1972

• Washing Machine
• Gas Dryer
• Wall fixture (1 lamp)

Outdoors 1972

• Front porch light (incandescent)
• Back porch light (incandescent)

1970 Totals

• 5 electric appliances (refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, and forced-air furnace)
• 9 electric/electronic devices
• 20 electric lamps

2022 Residential Electric Appliances, Devices, and Lighting Inventory

Kitchen 2022

• Refrigerator/freezer
• Dishwasher (built-in)
• Garbage disposal
• Toaster oven
• Hand-held mixer 
• Blender
• Range hood (exhaust fan and 2 LED lights)
• Ceiling fixture (1 LED)
• Over-sink fixture (1 LED) 
• Dining area ceiling fan/4-CFLs
• Food processor 
• Bullet blender
• Electric induction tea kettle 
• Coffee grinder
• Coffee maker
• Espresso maker
• Undercabinet clock radio
• Microwave oven
• Gas convection oven (fan)
• Pressure cooker

HVAC 2022

• Gas forced-air furnace (fan)
• DX Cooling (compressor)
• Whole House Fan
• Portable fans (2)

Home Office 2022

• Desktop computer/monitor
• Laptop computer
• One photo quality printer
• General printer 
• Flat-bed scanner
• Four back-up hard drives 
• Charging station with multiple chargers (for camera batteries, drone batteries, iPhone, iPad, recorders, video recorders, etc.)
• Document shredder
• Mesh router
• Clock radio
• Desk lamp
• Ceiling fan/light

Living Room 2022

• LCD TV 48”
• Sound bar
• Subwoofer
• CD/DVD player
• Tuner
• VCR/DVD/CD recorder
• Set-top cable box
• Apple TV device
• Apple Home Pod (2)
• Echo Spot
• Bluetooth speaker
• Charging station (multiple chargers)
• LED light strips (2)
• Fluorescent torchiere
• Compact fluorescent reading lamp
• Table lamp (LED)
• TV backlight (2 LEDs)
• Ceiling fan with 4 LED lamps
• WiFi Cable Router
• Mesh Router
• Apple Air Talk router
• 6 “nodes” for electronic devices

Bedroom Main 2022

• Echo Spot
• Mini Home Pod
• Ceiling fan with LED light
• LED reading lamp
• CFL reading lamp
• Watch and phone charging station

Bedrooms 2022 (2)

• Clock radio (1)
• Ceiling fan fixture (2, 1-lamp)
• Reading lamp

Bathrooms 2022 (2)

• Vanity fixtures (2, 2-lamp)
• Shaver charger (1)
• Hair dryer (1)
• Tooth cleaner pic (1)
• Bath exhaust fan (1-lamp)

Garage 2022

• Washing machine
• Gas Dryer
• Drill press
• Router
• Skill saw
• Reciprocating saw
• Plainer
• Joiner
• Battery chargers for portable equipment
• 4 LED hanging fixtures
• Garage door opener

Outdoors 2022

• Front porch light (LED)
• Back porch light (LED)
• Sprinkle controller
• Hot Tub
• Patio Lights (LEDs)
• Battery powered lawn care equipment (mower, string trimmer, edger, and chainsaw)

Miscellaneous – 2022

• Boom box

2022 Totals

• 7 electric appliances (refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, forced-air furnace, air conditioner, hot tub)
• 90 electric/electronic devices
• 44 electric lamps

In the past 50 years American homeowners greatly increased the number and type of electrical devices used in their homes. My own personal inventory of electrical appliances, devices, and lighting increased fivefold between 1972 and 2022. from less than 15 electric devices in 1970 to almost 100 devices in 2020. While the number of electric lights doubled from 20 to 40 their combined energy consumption greatly decreased due to improvement in lighting efficiency.

Based on my experience in conducting energy audits in people’s homes I would say that my electrical device inventory is probably a pretty typical. This same thing has happened on the commercial side too. In the early 1980’s offices had typewriters (mostly on the desks of secretaries) and by the late 1990s every desk had a computer on it. The future holds more electrical devices and appliances as new electronic gadgets are developed and as we convert gas-fired devices to electrical devices.

Instead of reducing our energy utilizing appliances and devices to save energy we are greatly increasing them. To reduce greenhouse gases and electrical consumption we need fewer electrical devices, not more, and those that we do use need to be as efficient as possible.