Breaking Barriers to Electrification: Lessons from the Multifamily Pilot
In California, multifamily housing makes up 30 percent of the state’s total residential buildings. This sector—which includes apartments, condos, and townhomes—will be instrumental in achieving equitable electrification and decarbonizing domestic hot water and space heating, especially because almost half of California’s low-income households live in multifamily housing. Multifamily housing faces significant barriers that make it difficult to convert from gas-fueled appliances to heat pump technology, including limited funds, electrical infrastructure complications, lack of awareness, and more.
From July 2021 through June 2025, the TECH Clean California Multifamily Pilot aimed to strategically tackle these challenges and bring heat pump technology to this critical sector. While the pilot offered many learning opportunities, the following three findings were particularly important in addressing the electrification barriers multifamily housing faces.
Being proactive rather than reactive is key. The pilot team learned that a phased approach to electrification—such as upgrading electrical breakers, wiring, or feeders before it’s time to replace a furnace or hot water heater—benefits property owners and makes electrification in the future more possible. To fully understand a property’s needs, and its electrification readiness, data analysis is also crucial. For example, at one of the pilot’s sites, standard load calculations suggested that the current infrastructure could not support any electrification measures. However, through monitoring and further analysis, the pilot team found that partial electrification, along with electrification readiness measures, could bring immediate cooling benefits to the senior citizens living on the property. This analysis helped prevent unnecessary upsizing requests and upfront capital costs, and ultimately allowed the project to move forward.
Current funding and incentive options need to change. Outside funding is important, as overall cost plays a significant role in whether building owners choose to go electric. The Multifamily Pilot helped pay for electrical infrastructure and engineering in four out of nine projects, allowing them to advance when they otherwise would have been paused or canceled entirely. The pilot also found that while most of its projects required significant electrical infrastructure work—which ranged between 18 percent to 44 percent of total project cost—many current incentive programs had no offerings that would support these necessary upgrades.
Additionally, some projects were ineligible for existing statewide programs due to their difficulty in meeting energy savings thresholds or deed-restricted requirements. These significant financial barriers for low-income multifamily housing owners could lessen—or disappear—if incentive programs were to expand their funding options and offer flexibility on requirements.
Achieving full electrification requires extensive engagement with property owners, engineers, and contractors. The pilot’s technical support allowed property owners to invest in HVAC upgrades without waiting, bringing immediate comfort, heating and cooling, and/or air quality benefits to residents.
To truly scale this effort, it will be important to train as many contractors and engineers as possible on heat pump technology—and ensure that heat pumps are top of mind for owners within the affordable housing community. The pilot’s focus on training and technical support empowered contractors and made them more likely to take on future multifamily heat pump projects.
To learn more about the TECH Clean California Multifamily Pilot’s findings, and to see the pilot team’s full list of recommendations for electrifying the multifamily sector, you can read the full report here.
