Where to start

Whether you own a rowhouse in Petworth, a colonial in Silver Spring, a condo in Arlington, or a rental in Prince George’s County, the path to an all-electric home follows the same basic order of operations. What changes region to region is who pays for what. This guide walks you through the steps and points you to the right programs for where you live — DC, Montgomery or Prince George’s County in Maryland, or Arlington or Fairfax County in Virginia.

Renting? You can’t make these upgrades yourself, but you can push for them. Skip to If you rent below.

Step 1: Get a home energy assessment

Before you touch a single appliance, get a professional energy assessment (sometimes called a home energy audit). A technician will run a blower door test to find leaks, check your insulation, and tell you which upgrades will actually move the needle — before you spend money on the wrong thing.

• DC: DCSEU offers subsidized home energy assessments for DC residents.
• Montgomery & Prince George’s County, MD: EmPOWER Maryland, delivered through Pepco or BGE, funds a Home Performance with ENERGY STAR assessment for around $100 (versus $400+ unsubsidized) — and completing one unlocks the program’s larger rebates.
• Arlington & Fairfax County, VA: Dominion Energy’s Home Energy Check and Virginia Energy Sense list assessment options; ask your utility what’s currently subsidized, since Virginia’s programs change more often than DC’s or Maryland’s.

Step 2: Take inventory of your home

Walk through your house and note the age, condition, and fuel type of your:

• Furnace or boiler (heating)
• Central air conditioner
• Water heater
• Stove/range
• Clothes dryer
• Car(s), if you’re also thinking about an EV

Photograph the model/serial plate on each unit. This alone will save you time when you start calling contractors.

Step 3: Check your electrical panel

Most panel upgrades aren’t actually necessary — a lot of DC-region rowhouses and older homes can go fully electric on a 100-amp panel with the right equipment choices. But it’s worth finding out early, especially if you’re also planning to add an EV charger, since a surprise panel upgrade is the most common budget-buster in an electrification project. Ask an electrician or your contractor to assess capacity before you commit to specific equipment.

Step 4: Decide what to replace, and when

The cheapest, lowest-waste strategy is replace on failure, not on impulse — when a gas system dies, replace it with an electric one instead of another gas unit. The exception is anything you’re planning years out anyway (like a kitchen renovation), where it makes sense to go electric proactively.

Rough order of impact, if you’re planning ahead rather than reacting to a breakdown:

1. Heating and cooling (heat pump): the single biggest carbon and comfort upgrade for most homes.
2. Water heater (heat pump water heater): usually the next-easiest swap.
3. Weatherization (insulation, air sealing): do this alongside — not instead of — appliance swaps. A poorly insulated house makes any heat pump work harder than it should.
4. Induction stove: smaller carbon impact, but a real air-quality and comfort win.
5. EV and home charging: time this around your panel capacity and any available incentives.
6. Solar (rooftop or community solar): works well once your electric load is set, so you’re sizing the system to your actual post-electrification usage.

Step 5: Find your local incentives

This is the step that varies most by where you live, and it’s also the step that changes the fastest — so treat any dollar figure you read (including on this page) as a starting point, not a promise. A few things to know as of mid-2026:

• The federal 25C/25D tax credits for heat pumps, water heaters, insulation, and solar expired December 31, 2025, and are not available for equipment installed in 2026.
• Federal HEAR/HOMES rebate programs (income-qualified, up to several thousand dollars for heat pumps and other upgrades) have not yet launched in Maryland or Virginia as of mid-2026. DC has its own version through DCSEU. Don’t plan a budget around a rebate that hasn’t opened yet.
• State and utility programs are the most reliable money right now, and they don’t expire on the same clock as federal credits:
  • DC: DCSEU rebates, Solar for All (income-qualified), and DC Green Bank financing.
  • Montgomery & Prince George’s County, MD: EmPOWER Maryland rebates through Pepco or BGE, which can cover a large share of a heat pump project once you’ve done the required assessment.
  • Arlington & Fairfax County, VA: Dominion Energy residential rebates for heat pump water heaters and equipment, plus county-level programs (check with Arlington’s Community Energy Program or Fairfax County’s Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination for the current list).

Use our incentive finder as your starting point, and confirm final numbers directly with the utility or program before you sign a contract — the finder and this page can lag official updates by a few weeks.

Step 6: Line up a contractor

Once you know what you’re replacing and what you might qualify for, get quotes. Read our full hiring a contractor guidefor the questions to ask, but the short version: get at least three quotes, ask specifically whether the contractor works with electric equipment (not just gas), and use our contractor finder to find people who do.

If you rent

You can’t install a heat pump yourself, but you’re not stuck waiting either:

• Ask your landlord or building manager whether they know about DCSEU, EmPOWER, or Dominion Energy rebates — many property owners don’t, and the ask itself can start the conversation.
• If a system in your unit is failing, ask what it’s being replaced with. That’s the moment of highest leverage.
• Tell us what’s going on in your building — we’re building out tenant-specific resources and want to hear what’s actually getting in the way.

Not sure where to start?

That’s normal — most people find this overwhelming the first time. Reach out and get help, come find us at an event, or just start with Step 1. Every step you take now is one less thing to figure out when a system breaks down and you’re deciding under pressure.