Did you get a postcard in the mail for XeroHome in SLO? Here’s what it’s about
There’s a new initiative for old houses in San Luis Obispo.
It’s called XeroHome, a web platform designed to help homeowners easily find out what retrofits will make their home more energy efficient and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The company partnered with PG&E and the city to launch in San Luis Obispo starting in mid-October.
“The idea behind XeroHome and why I developed XeroHome is we wanted to give homeowners the ability to quickly evaluate what doing a energy upgrade on their home would mean for their utility bills and their carbon footprint,” CEO Mudit Saxena said in an interview with The Tribune.
The program is also being tested in Petaluma, a PG&E spokesperson told The Tribune.
A “carbon footprint” is the total amount of greenhouse gases — such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — that are generated by human actions. Warming in the Earth’s atmosphere is caused by humans using fossil fuels to power their homes, cars and other uses — and that warming has led the climate to change and natural disasters to worsen.
XeroHome outlines what local, state and federal government rebates are available to those wishing to replace their air conditioning systems or water heaters with more efficient and electric options. It will also show about how much it would be to install solar panels on your home.
Saxena said that if homeowners say “yes” to XeroHome’s offer to evaluate how they can make their house emit less greenhouse gases, then it’ll follow up with information about local contractors who can do the work as well.
“We can follow up with you and say, ‘hey, have you done something about this? Can we help you take the next step? Can we help you find a contractor?’” he said. “We can all do all those things to help the homeowners that are interested to move towards the next step.”
How new green program could help city meet climate goals
XeroHome is implemented in just a few other cities around the United States — that augments the toolbox of climate-change-fighting actions homeowners can take laid out by the Resilient SLO Challenge. The challenge gives residents several actions to take to cut their carbon footprint, gathering points with each to compete with other communities.
The XeroHome program could help create many new jobs in the area as homeowners move to retrofit their homes with the efficient appliances, Saxena noted. But key is the program’s potential to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, he added.
“We realize that in terms of new construction versus existing buildings, existing buildings are where the biggest improvement can happen,” Saxena said. “If we can influence 10% of the homeowners who are in the existing homes, we can make a very big dent in the amount of carbon that’s coming into the atmosphere.”
Many people in San Luis Obispo rent the homes they live in, so Saxena said there is still incentive for landlords to make the investment in solar panels, electric water heaters or more efficient heating and cooling systems for the homes they own.
“It improves the value of their home,” he said. “If their home becomes more efficient, their home becomes that much more desirable to rent.”
Chris Read, San Luis Obispo’s sustainability manager, said the program is hugely exciting because of its potential to help the city reach its climate goals — including the goal to reduce natural gas usage in existing buildings by 50% by the end of the decade.
“We know that the buildings that we all live in, there’s a great opportunity if paired with federal resources, or state resources or other incentives — or just information — that we can make improvements to our buildings that not only reduce our energy costs, but also reduce our carbon footprints in support of this community’s goals,” Read said.
How XeroHome works
Residents in San Luis Obispo may have gotten a postcard in the mail asking them to scan a QR code or visit xerohome.com/app to learn more about the program.
After arriving at the website, the tool will ask you to type in your home address. Then, it will show details of your home gathered from public records — such as the square footage, the year it was built and your utilities rate.
You’ll then be taken through a series of questions about how your home is heated and cooled, and the type of water heater it has.
At the end, the program will give you an estimate of your home’s carbon footprint, which is how much carbon dioxide (CO2) your home emits through your heating, cooling, water heating and electrical energy activities.
Then, you can be shown a suite of ways to reduce this carbon footprint to help minimize the greenhouse gases emitted from your home and aid in the fight against climate change.
The XeroHome service comes at no cost to homeowners, Saxena noted, and the first 100 residents to try the site will get a $10 gift card.
PG&E intends to share the initial results of the service in the first quarter of 2023, a PG&E spokesperson told The Tribune, and the service will be available to residents until Oct. 24, 2023.
Tribune science reporting fellow Joana Tavares contributed to this story.
