Some rules have been waived to encourage the swift replacement of burned-out homes. Fire experts say it’s critical that new homes be resilient to future risk.
Tldr: The mayor waived the requirements for new homes to be all electric (no propane/natural gas/oil, a pretty obvious no Brainerd in a flammable area) and require solar to be installed when built. Very stupid in my opinion.
I’m assuming this is because the lead times for the upgraded grid connections for electric heating and/or volume of solar panels required would be too long?
If so, it would make more sense to allow a grace period between building a house (and letting it be occupied) and installation of solar panels/electric heating, than to just say you don’t need them at all. As long as the house is built from the start to take the system, you could put it in later.
For example (and I know the heating systems are probably different in the US), in the UK we have hot water heating systems with radiators, one of the common issues with retrofitting heat pumps in an existing building is that the heat pump produces water at a lower temperature than an oil/gas boiler.
As a result, you need more radiator area and upgraded insulation. So you could just install good insulation and radiators to begin with, and if you can’t get a heat pump now just install a gas boiler and run it on a lower setting. Then people get the homes they need and you don’t completely fuck the future.
it would make more sense to allow a grace period between building a house (and letting it be occupied) and installation of solar panels/electric heating
This makes sense, It’s coastal southern California, you don’t really need heating /cooling . There’s a reason all the rich people live there , year round you’ll maybe have a couple days over 80°F and a couple below 50°F, rest is high 60s low 70s. They should be fine going without heating for a while.
I don’t know the specifics here, but when there was a wildfire in my area they did something very similar. It wasn’t just the lead time on materials, it’s that most insurance only pays to rebuild what you had. You have to have additional coverage for upgrades, I think it’s called local ordinance or law coverage, that pays the difference between the value of your house as it was, and the cost of building a new house to current code. Turns out most people don’t have enough of that extra coverage to actually meet the expense.
So they made an exception and let everyone build back to the standard they had. Afterwards they changed the minimum for that local ordinance coverage state-wide, and premiums have like tripled since.
I don’t think you need upgraded grid connections to support modern heat pump appliances. They’re just way more expensive in upfront investment.
And in fact, it seems crazy to me to repair gas connections in a neighbourhood that burned down completely. Just abolish it, and you need to spend less money on maintenance, and the people living there don’t have to pay for that utility.
Tldr: The mayor waived the requirements for new homes to be all electric (no propane/natural gas/oil, a pretty obvious no Brainerd in a flammable area) and require solar to be installed when built. Very stupid in my opinion.
I’m assuming this is because the lead times for the upgraded grid connections for electric heating and/or volume of solar panels required would be too long?
If so, it would make more sense to allow a grace period between building a house (and letting it be occupied) and installation of solar panels/electric heating, than to just say you don’t need them at all. As long as the house is built from the start to take the system, you could put it in later.
For example (and I know the heating systems are probably different in the US), in the UK we have hot water heating systems with radiators, one of the common issues with retrofitting heat pumps in an existing building is that the heat pump produces water at a lower temperature than an oil/gas boiler.
As a result, you need more radiator area and upgraded insulation. So you could just install good insulation and radiators to begin with, and if you can’t get a heat pump now just install a gas boiler and run it on a lower setting. Then people get the homes they need and you don’t completely fuck the future.
This makes sense, It’s coastal southern California, you don’t really need heating /cooling . There’s a reason all the rich people live there , year round you’ll maybe have a couple days over 80°F and a couple below 50°F, rest is high 60s low 70s. They should be fine going without heating for a while.
I don’t know the specifics here, but when there was a wildfire in my area they did something very similar. It wasn’t just the lead time on materials, it’s that most insurance only pays to rebuild what you had. You have to have additional coverage for upgrades, I think it’s called local ordinance or law coverage, that pays the difference between the value of your house as it was, and the cost of building a new house to current code. Turns out most people don’t have enough of that extra coverage to actually meet the expense.
So they made an exception and let everyone build back to the standard they had. Afterwards they changed the minimum for that local ordinance coverage state-wide, and premiums have like tripled since.
I don’t think you need upgraded grid connections to support modern heat pump appliances. They’re just way more expensive in upfront investment.
And in fact, it seems crazy to me to repair gas connections in a neighbourhood that burned down completely. Just abolish it, and you need to spend less money on maintenance, and the people living there don’t have to pay for that utility.