About
Think of Electrify Tahoe as a bootfitter for your all-electric life - providing the solution that best fits your current home or building. All assistance is free to local residents and businesses, including:
Electrify Tahoe is a volunteer effort by Blake Herrschaft (PE, LEED AP) a resident of Tahoe City and one of the leading global experts in carbon free buildings. I am an Architectural Engineer who has designed dozens of the most sustainable buildings in the world, including LEED Platinum, Net Zero, and Top Ten Green Building award-winning buildings across five continents. My career has been singularly focused on ending fossil fuel use on land.
This is an effort by me to give back what I can to the local community that has been so good to me, I can promise that at some point you'll want to electrify your home or building. It is the only viable path to zero carbon building operation at scale. If you are ready to make the change, I'm here to help.
- Electrification roadmap consults (1 hour visit to your home or building to help you understand your best path to electrify)
- Recommendations for specific equipment being replaced
- Lending of induction ranges
- Answering typical FAQs - "what about the grid, what about power outages, etc."
- Questions related to electrification ordinances
Electrify Tahoe is a volunteer effort by Blake Herrschaft (PE, LEED AP) a resident of Tahoe City and one of the leading global experts in carbon free buildings. I am an Architectural Engineer who has designed dozens of the most sustainable buildings in the world, including LEED Platinum, Net Zero, and Top Ten Green Building award-winning buildings across five continents. My career has been singularly focused on ending fossil fuel use on land.
This is an effort by me to give back what I can to the local community that has been so good to me, I can promise that at some point you'll want to electrify your home or building. It is the only viable path to zero carbon building operation at scale. If you are ready to make the change, I'm here to help.
Some of Blake's Experience
Award-winning Design Projects
Electrification Planning & Implementation
Residential (and commercial) Electrification Technical Assistance
My motto has been "I always have an hour to lend to a person looking to make their building sustainable or all-electric." While working at Rocky Mountain Institute, all calls to the think-tank about sustainable building questions were routed to me. I have led a municipal building technical assistance program in the Bay Area helping cities electrify their building stock. In conjunction with Peninsula Clean Energy and Silicon Valley Clean Energy, I have provided guidance to dozens of homeowners and commercial building designers looking to electrify their homes or building. This includes single-family homes, high-rise affordable housing developments, labs, offices; new and existing in every instance.
In Tahoe, I am working to electrify our own home and am halfway there. I have also helped multiple local residents electrify new construction projects in Tahoe City and provided guidance to electrify an existing home in South Lake. I will add testimonials to the site as I update.
- RMI Headquarters, Basalt, CO - LEED Platinum, ILFI Net Zero Certified, PHIUS+ Certified. Located in a high alpine environment down the street from Aspen, the new headquarters are passively designed, net zero energy, all-electric, and host a range of other sustainable features. While working at RMI, I acted as the owners representative for all mechanical system decisions for the building, which has been operating for over 5 years in a much colder climate than Tahoe.
- Gruenberg Law Offices, San Diego - AIA Commercial Honor Award Winner. Net Zero, all-electric law offices featuring natural ventilation, daylight, heat pump space heating, and enough solar to offset all energy use. I led all mechanical, plumbing, and sustainable design.
- High Tech High, Chula Vista, San Diego - AIA COTE Top Ten Green Buildings Award Winner. The k-12 high school features daylight to improve learning, high efficiency building systems, natural ventilation throughout, indoor-outdoor spaces, and was my first project as a professional.
- Murph Zero. San Diego, CA - Attaining ILFI Net Zero certification. The single-family renovation project with detached ADU features all-electric design including: heat pump water heater, heat pump HVAC, outdoor electric BBQ, hot tub, mini-splits in ADU, steam shower, EV charging for two vehicles, and enough solar to offset all electricity use. Passive design utilizes San Diego's natural sunlight and the ocean breeze coming off La Jolla shores are central features, including Nanawall. This home was the first permitted system for indoor greywater re-use. Water from sinks, clothes washing, and dishwashing is filtered, stored, and re-used for toilet flushing and the little irrigation required for drought-tolerant landscape. The owner, an avid surfer, used the space reclaimed from his gas meter as a surf rack location.
- 1 Shelley Street. Sydney, Australia - 6 Star Greenstar (LEED Platinum Equivalent.) While practicing in Sydney, I led mechanical design on this 300,000 sqft office building which includes: harbor heat rejection, passive chilled beam cooling, atrium as solar chimney, high daylight penetration, and a high performance facade.
- LEED Gold and Platinum Projects - throughout my career, nearly every project I have worked on has been LEED certified, including over a dozen LEED Platinum buildings.
Electrification Planning & Implementation
- Boulder Renewable Heating & Cooling Roadmap - Boulder, CO
- Palo Alto Zero Net Energy Roadmap - Palo Alto, CA
- City of Cambridge Net Zero Small New Construction Policy - Cambridge, Mass.
- Bay Area Reach Codes - South Bay Area, CA
- All-Electric Kitchen Planning for Global Tech Portfolio - Confidential
Residential (and commercial) Electrification Technical Assistance
My motto has been "I always have an hour to lend to a person looking to make their building sustainable or all-electric." While working at Rocky Mountain Institute, all calls to the think-tank about sustainable building questions were routed to me. I have led a municipal building technical assistance program in the Bay Area helping cities electrify their building stock. In conjunction with Peninsula Clean Energy and Silicon Valley Clean Energy, I have provided guidance to dozens of homeowners and commercial building designers looking to electrify their homes or building. This includes single-family homes, high-rise affordable housing developments, labs, offices; new and existing in every instance.
In Tahoe, I am working to electrify our own home and am halfway there. I have also helped multiple local residents electrify new construction projects in Tahoe City and provided guidance to electrify an existing home in South Lake. I will add testimonials to the site as I update.
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