The Homeowner’s Guide to Electrical Load Management

Jan 2025

Electrifying your home is an important step in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the overall energy efficiency of a home. A common misconception is that a home’s electrical service must also always be upgraded when electrifying, however, electrical service upgrades may not be necessary. BC Housing’s Research Centre has created The Homeowner’s Guide to Electrical Load Management so consumers can how to electrify their home without upgrading electrical service.  There are many opportunities to achieve an energy efficient home and avoid upgrading your home’s electrical service. These can include:

  1. Reduce your home’s electrical consumption through energy-efficient upgrades.
  2. Use load management technologies to share or shed electrical loads.

This consumer guide is an expansion of the Homeowner’s Conversational Guide to Electrical Service Upgrades. It provides, in greater detail, key concepts in home electrical load management, such as:

  • Assessing your home’s electrical capacity
  • Strategies to reduce or manage overall electrical loads
  • Managing complete electrification retrofits

While this publication focuses on considerations for replacing existing fossil fuel heating with a heat pump, many principles also apply to overall home electrification.

Read the guide in full here. 

Want to learn more about some of the technologies involved in electrical load management? Check out this B2E resource Home Electrification: Service Upgrade Not Required!