Los Angeles Times

Commentary: Goodbye gas. New all-electric homes show how to live without fossil fuels

A representative of Schneider Electric demonstrates a smart electrical panel during a launch event at a KB Home subdivision in Menifee, California on May 22, 2023.

From the outside, the rows of tile-roof houses in a new community in Menifee, California, don’t look much different from those in other subdivisions cropping up in this fast-growing city in Riverside County. But on the inside, these all-electric homes are revolutionary, offering a glimpse of the zero-emission future we should be hurtling toward to fight climate change and adapt to its effects.

All the houses in the Durango and Oak Shade at Shadow Mountain communities, two adjacent KB Home subdivisions I visited in May for an opening event, were built without natural gas hookups or appliances. Each of the 219 homes comes with rooftop solar panels, heat pumps for heating and cooling, induction cooktops and other energy-efficient electric appliances, and a smart

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