Members of the City Council,
I oppose the effort to rush through these amendments without sufficient
consideration of their costs to Menlo Park residents living in older
housing. In an effort to avoid the constraints set by AB 130, the city
council will be voting to proceed without sufficient outreach to the
community. You are ignoring the results of your own email survey, which
although it had very limited distribution and response, raised serious
objections as to the cost of the mandated electrification upgrades.
My own 1940s bungalow in the Willows is a prime example of the problems
with complying with the proposed ordinance.
* The 100 A main panel is fully committed to existing circuits. Although
there is physical space for an additional breaker, there is no
capacity. It is _duplicitous _to state "*Electric panels usually have
extra breaker space that is not currently connected to an appliance;
reserving extra
spaces for future appliances does not create costs." While this may be
literally true, in actuality, there can be no additional devices without
a panel upgrade.
* There is no location within our 1,000 square foot house that is large
enough for a HPWH. The existing enclosure for the gas water heater is
too small (2 x 2) and cannot be expanded without destroying the single
bathroom or a bedroom closet. Creating either a conduit or raceway to
the existing enclosure would be pointless, as it cannot accommodate a HPWH.
There are numerous long-term residents faced with similar barriers to
electrification, many of them like myself, senior citizens. The costs
will be far greater than indicated in Table 2 of the Staff report. I
seriously doubt that I could get an electrician to install a conduit or
raceway to the (inadequate) water heater enclosure for $100 to $500.
That is the cost for about an hour of their time. In actuality, we
would be looking at upwards of $50,000 to upgrade the panel and wiring,
even without the other pre-wiring requirements.
If you do proceed with the amendments, please adopt the Flex option, not
only for AC to HP, but for the other electrification requirements as well.
Naomi Goodman
Menlo Park
