With all the weather-related disasters occurring now, climate change is on the mind of many people. There are several things that we all can do to help to minimize harm to our environment. Decreasing the fuel to heat your home by improving insulation and weatherizing not only reduces your costs but reduces your carbon footprint, no matter what you use for heating and cooling.

Our electric supply will gradually shift to carbon free energy, not only because of the environment, but because it is cheaper. Sun and wind provide free fuel compared to digging or drilling for fossil fuels. Please contact your legislators to help encourage renewables and avoid the building of fossil-fueled electric generation and gas pipes that will only be used for a fraction of their useful life. These stranded facilities will increase the utility ratepayers’ costs needlessly.

With natural gas, not only do the emissions from combustion need to be considered, but the leakage of methane all the way from the well to the pipes connecting your home are estimated to greatly increase emissions from using it as a fuel.

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As your appliances, water heaters, HVAC and vehicles need replacing, you should strongly consider electric replacements. These major expenditures have typical useful lives of 15 to 20 years. We need to avoid manufacturing things that will be made obsolete long before they wear out. For heating and cooling, heat pumps are three to four times as efficient as their fossil fueled counterparts. This makes them less expensive to operate and will save you money. An easy way to think of this is that we are moving heat, not creating it. Now there are air source heat pumps that work efficiently below zero degrees Fahrenheit. Heat pump water heaters are available and work well.

There is discussion about electric vehicles using electricity that is generated by fossil fuels being no better than gas or diesel vehicles. Not only should this become moot as more electric generation is done with renewables over the lifespan of your vehicle, but is incorrect to begin with. Electric vehicles are about 85% efficient compared to the 15 to 25% efficiency of gas and diesel vehicles. Even when adding the embodied carbon of manufacturing, credible estimates are that, on average, electric vehicles will make up the difference within the first year of operation.

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For those who can, adding rooftop solar helps as well. Pushing our legislators to make sure that the excess generation is compensated fairly is also helpful. Net metering is fair as it helps the utilities avoid building new generation facilities and avoids losses through the transmission and distribution systems. With new and improving battery technologies, and electric vehicles, storage of the intermittent solar and wind will make energy less expensive for all. Having electric rate structures that encourage vehicle charging at times when electric generation is cheapest, as well as leveling demand, will decrease energy costs for everyone.

As an added benefit, your transition to using more electricity will accelerate the demand and cost reduction for innovative HVAC, appliances, and transportation choices.

If we all do a little, we can help with the transition to a better environment and less costly energy supply as well as savings for you.

Jim Koch is a resident of Unionville.