06/13/2026
Chronicle June 13, 2026
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San Francisco is about to roll out a far-reaching new rule for major home renovations
By Brooke Park, Staff WriterJune 13, 2026
San Franciscans making major renovations to their homes will soon be subject to a far-reaching new environmental rule.
Starting July 1, most property owners seeking permits for gut-level renovations that also replace major mechanical systems, such as water heaters and furnaces, will be required to ditch natural gas and install fully electric systems. That means space heating and cooling, water heating, cooking and clothes drying systems must all be entirely powered by electricity.
City leaders say the rule, which extends San Francisco’s existing ban on natural gas in new construction, will cut a major source of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, often without increasing renovation costs — and sometimes lowering them, according to city estimates.
To qualify as a major renovation, a project must both replace core mechanical systems and involve extensive work to the building itself, including any of these three criteria: substantially moving, repairing or modifying walls or ceilings on two-thirds or more of floors; modifying structural elements that support 30% or more of the floor or roof area; or expanding the building with new construction that is valued at 50% or more of the building’s previous market value.
The San Francisco Department of the Environment estimates that the new rule will affect the equivalent of roughly 261 single-family homes and 293 multifamily units a year, or about 0.2% of the city’s overall single-family home square footage and about 0.1% of multifamily homes square footage annually.
Once a home is fully electrified, property owners can contact Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to remove the gas meter and cut off gas service.
SAVINGS OR COSTS?
A city analysis estimates that major renovations to single-family homes and small hotels could save money by going all-electric compared with mixed-fuel construction. The incremental cost savings come from not having to design, purchase and install new natural gas piping and infrastructure during renovations.
Single-family homes could save around $2 per square foot while small hotels could save $14.56 per square foot.
While many property owners fear switching from gas to electric will raise utility bills, city officials say efficient electric appliances use far less energy than natural gas appliances. The city expects rates for natural gas to rise faster than for electricity between 2025 and 2040.
“Folks see electricity as being a lot more expensive than natural gas,” said Cyndy Comerford, the San Francisco climate program manager. “We have seen some historical increases in electricity, but of late, we’ve actually seen a decrease in electricity prices.”
Others say renovation costs to go all-electric can still rise, however, when older properties need electrical panel, wiring or utility service upgrades.
A 2026 policy brief from the UCLA California Center for Sustainable Communities found that it is difficult for many existing properties to electrify, especially for lower- and moderate-income households. The UCLA research also points to panel capacity and electrical service upgrades as a major unresolved issue for older buildings.
Zach Heir, president of Heirloom Builders, a general contracting company based in San Francisco, said his contractors typically see single-family homeowners who need to upgrade from a 100-amp panel, common in many older homes, to 200-amp service.
That upgrade, he wrote in an email, can allow homes to add electric heating and cooling, electric cooking, an electric dryer, an electric water heater, and in some cases an electric vehicle charger.
But Comerford said panel or service upgrades are not always necessary.
One of the “most common misconceptions” is that all-electric design automatically requires more electrical capacity, Comerford said. In many cases, she said, efficient design can allow a home to electrify without upgrading its electrical service.
UCLA researchers say panel-capacity issues can often be addressed through load management instead of full panel upgrades. But many contractors are unfamiliar with those alternatives, and often default to upsizing panels. As a result, some property owners may still be steered toward costlier electrical upgrades, even when lower-cost options exist.
EXEMPTIONS
The all-electric ordinance includes several exemptions. The most widely used is likely to be a carveout for commercial cooking, which allows restaurants and other food service buildings to retain natural gas infrastructure for cooking equipment. The city estimated the incremental cost for an all-electric major renovation to be up to $39.50 per square foot in a full-service restaurant.
Projects may qualify for an exemption if an all-electric design would require utility infrastructure upgrades that cause a “substantially greater delay” than a comparable mixed-fuel project. But higher project cost alone are not grounds for an exemption.
The ordinance also includes an exemption for gas infrastructure serving appliances covered by federal energy-efficiency law, such as many furnaces, water heaters, clothes dryers and cooking appliances, if the manufacturer has certified that the appliance meets federal standards.
Comerford said she could not estimate how many major renovation projects will receive exemptions. But she pointed to the low rate of exemptions under the city’s all-electric requirement for new construction, which took effect in 2021 and introduced the federal energy-efficiency law exemption in 2024. Of the 387 building permits that have been submitted since that ordinance went into effect, the city has received and approved eight exemptions, Comerford said.
A PERMIT RUSH?
Even with the narrow definition for a qualifying renovation, city building officials are preparing for a rush of permit applications before the rule applies.
David Kane, the interim director of the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection, said in a May building inspection commission meeting that his department is expecting a “potential surge in permit applications” leading up to the all-electric requirements for renovations “as applicants will likely advance their permit submittals before the change goes into effect.”
But Comerford said other factors are likely to be at play in any permit application increase: She pointed to a broader uptick in building permits, downtown revitalization efforts and the fact that July 1 is the start of the city’s fiscal year, when multiple policy and fee changes can take effect.
The building inspection department said in an email that it prepares for permit application surges before new regulations go into effect each year.
RESISTANCE
Mandates for electric appliances in existing homes have received some pushback: The Bay Area Air District, for example, only narrowly agreed last month to proceed with a plan to ban the installation of gas-powered water heaters across the region next year, albeit with some exemptions, amid cost concerns.
Comerford said the city has largely been able to avoid the resistance the air district is facing, partly because the rule is designed to apply at a time when electrification is least expensive — during big renovations, when building owners are already opening up the walls. Gas infrastructure, the city believes, could one day become obsolete.
Some San Francisco residents are already eagerly moving to create all-electric homes. Peter Belden has electrified almost every appliance in his Potrero Hill home. He avoids using his gas stove by stacking a cutting board and electric cooktop on top.
“We have not done a major renovation, so this wasn’t like a required electrification,” he said. “We’ve just done it over time either because it’s good for the environment or to save money.”
All that remains are a decorative gas fireplace and the furnace, the most expensive transition, he said.
“The state and the region are going for all-electric readiness in the future,” said Joseph Piasecki, the San Francisco Environment Department’s policy coordinator. “To put in a system, which ultimately will not be able to be utilized in decades, is just incurring a cost now that, you know, at some point you will have to take out.”
Brooke Park is a Hearst Fellow covering news for the San Francisco Chronicle. She spent the first year of her fellowship at San Antonio Express-News. She can be reached at [email protected].
