Electrifying a home means shifting it away from natural gas and toward electricity for its energy, and powering that electricity with a clean, on-site source rather than the grid alone. Done in a deliberate order, electrification lowers long-term energy costs, strengthens a home's resilience, and reduces its emissions. Done piecemeal, it often costs more than it should and can leave a household with an undersized solar system or an electrical panel that cannot support the next addition.
For North Bay homeowners served by PG&E, sequence matters even more because high electricity rates and California's NEM 3.0 billing rules reward planning the entire project around a clean-energy foundation rather than adding loads one at a time. SolarCraft has designed clean energy systems for the region since 1984, and the roadmap below shows how the pieces fit together, with solar and battery storage as the foundation that makes everything else affordable to operate.
Why the order matters
Each step in electrification affects the others. Sizing a solar system before accounting for a future electric vehicle leads to a system that is too small for the home's eventual demand. Adding electrical loads before improving efficiency results in generating and paying for more power than the home actually needs. And new electric loads draw on the same electrical panel, so the order determines whether that panel is addressed once or repeatedly. Planning the sequence up front avoids paying twice, which is the single most common and most expensive mistake homeowners make.
Start with efficiency
Before adding electric loads or sizing a solar system, it pays to reduce the home's energy demand. Improving insulation, sealing air leaks, and addressing obvious inefficiencies reduce the amount of energy the home needs in the first place. A tighter, more efficient home requires less generation, which makes the solar system that follows smaller and less expensive. Efficient work is typically handled by specialists in that trade, and it sets the foundation for everything that comes next.
Make solar the foundation
Solar is the foundation that powers an electrified home, so it should be sized for the home the household is growing into, not only for today's usage. Electricity from the grid is subject to PG&E's rising rates, while electricity generated on a homeowner's roof is not, which turns a growing electric load from a liability into an advantage. A system designed with future demand in mind, such as the addition of an electric vehicle, avoids the cost and complexity of later expansion. SolarCraft's approach to residential solar centers on this kind of forward-looking design, sizing a system to where a home is headed rather than only where it is today.
Add battery storage
Under NEM 3.0, electricity exported to the grid earns far less than the retail rate, so storing solar for evening use is more valuable than exporting it. A battery captures that value and provides backup power during PG&E outages and Public Safety Power Shutoffs, keeping essential circuits running when the grid is down. As homes electrify and depend more completely on electricity, that resilience matters more, not less. The role of storage in the decision is covered on the "Battery Storage" page.
Plan for EV charging
An electric vehicle is frequently the single largest new electrical load a home adds, often comparable to the rest of the household's usage combined. That is precisely why solar should be sized with a future EV in mind. Charging a vehicle with solar power generated by the home, rather than with grid power billed at rising rates, is one of the clearest financial advantages of an electrified home, and it is most effective when the system is designed to carry that load from the start. Adding charging capacity after the fact is possible, but planning for it during the solar design avoids an undersized system and a second round of work.
Manage loads with a smart electrical panel
As a home adds electric loads, the electrical panel becomes a constraint. A smart electrical panel addresses this by monitoring and managing how the home draws power, prioritizing circuits and balancing demand so that adding a major load does not always require a costly upgrade to the main panel. It also gives a homeowner visibility into where energy is going and control over which circuits a battery backs up during an outage. For a home moving toward full electrification, intelligent load management keeps the electrical system orderly as demand grows and works hand in hand with solar and storage.
Sizing solar for an all-electric home
The thread running through the sequence is that solar should be planned for the home's full electrified future, not just its current bill. A household that installs solar for today's modest usage and then adds an electric vehicle will find the system undersized within a few years, and expanding a system after the fact is more expensive than designing it correctly the first time. Anticipating future demand from the start is a core part of how SolarCraft sizes a system, and a site-specific plan is the only way to get it right for a particular home. That plan is available through the contact page.
How SolarCraft approaches electrification
SolarCraft designs a home's clean energy around solar and battery storage as the foundation, then helps homeowners plan the additions that follow, such as EV charging and smart load management, in a sequence that fits their budget and timeline. The company is known for setting realistic expectations, sizing systems to how a home actually uses power, and installing with its own in-house crews rather than subcontractors. Rising PG&E rates make the case for generating and storing your own power stronger each year, and a clear plan keeps the transition orderly rather than reactive.
