Americans burn much less fossil fuel in their homes on average and use much more electricity compared to half a century ago. This good news means that even though the “Electrify Everything” movement became a leading decarbonization strategy only a decade ago, American homes have actually been steadily electrifying for more than five decades. An all-electric future is, thus, not only possible, we’re well on our way to achieving it.

Let’s dive into the numbers to see what happened and analyze why this trend has been taking place seemingly on its own. 

Less Fossil Fuels, More Electricity

Today, per capita, Americans burn about 53% less fossil fuel in their homes than 50 years ago. 

Table based on data from the Energy Information Administration. 

Meanwhile Americans use almost 90% more electricity per person than we did in the early 1970s.

Source Energy Information Administration

Electrifying as many sectors as possible is considered a key decarbonization strategy. Emissions from electricity have declined 41% (tinyurl.com/4pwka5zz) since 2005 and with the rise of renewables along with governmental mandates, a zero carbon electrical grid is reachable in the next couple of decades. 

Thus, it’s good news that electricity as a percentage of per capita energy that Americans use in their homes has nearly tripled from 16% in 1972 to 45% today.

What accounts for this increased use of electricity and decreased fossil fuel use? Why have we been electrifying everything for the last five decades without anyone knowing or talking about it?

More Electric Appliances 

For one, we have more gadgets that run on electricity. Just consider how many electronic devices we’re either using or charging at any moment of the day. Beyond smart devices and computers, however, air conditioning is a great example of a household appliance that has increased its presence in American homes dramatically over the last half century. According to data from the U.S. Census, 46% percent of Americans homes had AC in 1976 and that number has increased to 95% today. 

And we should note that while there are many more electric appliances in our homes now, they are significantly more efficient and use a fraction of the energy of their predecessors. Electric appliances have achieved more efficiency gains than gas appliances as shown in the chart below where gas furnaces have barely gotten more efficient in the last three decades. Electricity would be even a larger share of home energy use but for these incredible gains in efficiency.

Natural Gas Use Down

Meanwhile, American households have steadily been using less natural gas since the 1970s. Total use of natural gas in homes has been flat in the U.S. (even declining slightly from its peak in 1972) for 50 years while the U.S. population has grown by 60%. Per capita gas use has fallen by almost 40%. This means that with over 120 million more Americans alive today than 50 years ago, we don’t use any more natural gas overall. 

What are the reasons behind this 50-year trend? The Natural Gas Supply Association thinks that gas appliances becoming more efficient is one of the reasons we burn 40% less gas in our homes than we did 50 years ago, though we saw above that gas appliances have hardly improved their efficiency, especially compared to electric appliances. Our homes have also, of course, become much better insulated in the last 50 years.  

The NGSA also points to the fact that more homes have been built in the Southern parts of the U.S. and have lower heating needs as another reason for decreased natural gas usage. Data from the U.S. Census shows this to be true with 40% of new homes built after 1970 in the South compared to 28% in the decades before that. (tinyurl.com/mr2pr8bw)

But these reasons don’t tell the whole story. Significantly more Americans use electricity to heat their homes and water than did two generations ago – another sign of this natural trend towards home electrification. Rapid technological improvements in heat pumps and heat pump water heaters have contributed by making these technology options better-performing and more affordable to operate. 

Also, burning propane and fuel oil was much more common five decades ago and is much less common today. 

Cost is a big reason. Both propane and fuel oil are delivered fuels and cost significantly more than natural gas or other sources. (Efficiency Maine has a good calculator showing this (tinyurl.com/5n7a79ry). Propane is mostly used in rural areas, but heat pumps have now shown they can do everything propane used to do and for much less cost. Fuel oil has declined the most of any fossil fuel (nearly 90% per capita) and is mainly only used in the Northeast (and is declining there as well).

 What can we conclude then? Americans burn less than half the amount of fossil fuels in their homes as their grandparents did 50 years ago. We have steadily electrified their homes by buying new electric devices and by converting ones that used to burn fossil fuels to electric. At the same time, electric appliances have gotten far more efficient (thank you heat pumps!). Long before “electrify everything” became a well-known phrase, Americans had been electrifying their homes, showing a clear path to a post-carbon world.