What are the advantages to all-electric buildings?

Eliminating combustion of natural gas in livable areas improves the indoor air quality and improves overall safety associated with fires and gas leaks. A 2002 study by the California Seismic Safety Commission found that damaged gas infrastructure caused 20 to 50 percent of post-earthquake fire ignitions. Buildings with electric heating are allowed a larger winter baseline quantity of electricity. All-electric homes have electric heat pump appliances (such as water heaters, air conditioning and heaters) are 4-5 times more efficient than equivalent natural gas appliances. All-electric buildings can more effectively utilize on-site solar generation, required in the 2019 Building Code.

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1. Why is the City going beyond what the State is requiring when the new energy code already has a large increase in energy requirements?
2. What are the advantages to all-electric buildings?
3. What are the potential drawbacks of an all-electric building?
4. Are all-electric buildings viable today?
5. What happens to electric water heaters and induction cooktops when the power goes out? Isn’t it better to have a gas stove to be able to cook meals and a gas water heater to have hot water?
6. Won’t this add costs and make it more difficult to build housing?
7. How do construction costs compare?
8. How does the life cycle cost compare?
9. Why the focus on new residential construction?
10. How reliable is the electric grid as compared to natural gas pipelines?
11. Will you take my gas stove away?
12. What is this electric induction cooking all about?
13. Can a heat pump water heater match the performance of a gas system?
14. Will the heat pump water heater need to be supplemented by electric resistance?
15. Doesn’t electricity produce emissions as well? What will these buildings run on when the sun goes down?
16. What about adding more electricity to the grid?
17. Does this affect smart meter opt out?
18. Is it harder to sell an all-electric house?