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Eric & BETH’s Berkeley hills home

Induction stove: General Electric Cafe model. The speed of cooking, the uniformity of heat in the pots, the control of temperature, the coolness of the kitchen, and the ease of cleaning up are much better than our previous resistance electric stove.

Rooftop Solar: I installed SunPower solar cells in 2006 and had SunFirst! put them on the roof.

Heat Pump HVAC: The Carrier compressor is outside the house, and the Kenmore air handler (fan and radiator to blow air in the ducts) is inside the house. 

Heat Pump Water Heater: The compressor is outside the house, and the hot water tank is inside. Most hot water heat pumps have a small compressor on top of a tank, and the unit is in a garage or outside because the compressor makes cold air. Our heat pump is made by Sanden. It costs more but uses CO2 as the refrigerant, which is far less greenhouse trapping than the normal fluorochlorocarbon refrigerants if it leaks out accidentally. 

Chargers for a Chevrolet Volt and for a Tesla. Each charger comes with the car. All that is needed is normal electric sockets. The Volt charger is plugged into a 120 Volt socket, and the Tesla charger is plugger into a 240 Volt socket. Only normal sockets are needed for normal, overnight charging. The Volt gets 40 miles of added range in 10 hours of charging at 120 Volts. The Tesla gets 320 miles of added range in 13 hours of charging at 240 Volts. 

Inverter that directs electricity from Chevrolet Volt battery back to house during power outages: VertaMax, made by a company called WindyNation. It gets connected to a 12 volt battery and puts out 115 volts AC. I ordered it online and see on its website that the 1500 W model costs $229.99 now.