Changing Paradigms, Systems, and Stoves
TAF Coordinating Committee member Trisha Tull shares her personal story about "going solar."
By Rev. Dr. Patricia (Trisha) Tull
Our upcoming General Meeting (July 22) will describe ways for homeowners and congregations to embrace solar energy. As a preview, Trisha Tull has updated a Going Deep essay we first published in December 2023 about the energy saving efforts her family made in their own home and in their congregation.
REDUCING AND ELECTRIFYING OUR HOUSEHOLD ENERGY USE is the one thing that only we can do to help prepare the world for a carbon-free future. Doing so is an act of environmental justice toward those who innocently suffer from climate disasters—the poor, the young, and other species. It communicates hope and models possibility for neighbors and friends. And, up-front financial outlays notwithstanding, changing our household systems saves money over time. Electrifying our homes and transportation makes sense wherever utilities are moving toward renewable energy and even where they are not. Reducing energy use continues to save money as technologies for highly efficient appliances such as induction cooktops, washing machines, and heat pumps for HVAC systems, hot water, and clothes dryers become more mainstream. Part of our role as Third Actors is to be early adopters—to model changes we all must make.
Few of us remember cultural shifts as massive as those we are entering. Our society had not been asked to act together for the common good in many decades, but in 2022 the Biden administration and Congress introduced the Inflation Reduction Act, offering households tens of thousands of dollars to change the ways we drive, cook, and power our homes in order to cease burning fossil fuels.
As of June 2025, despite the overwhelming popularity of these benefits, it is unclear which IRA tax credits and rebates the Republican-controlled Congress will continue to make available as they debate the 2026 budget reconciliation bill. But this Consumer Reports article outlines current options, and this Rewiring America website helps every household make specific plans to take advantage of as many tax benefits as possible. Some of these benefits greatly expand the solar and geothermal federal tax credits that have been available for years. Others come through funds that individual states and territories (except South Dakota) applied for and were awarded this past January. Now that the federal Department of Energy has been overrun by fossil fuel interests, identifying benefits state by state has become more difficult, but you can find them on state websites by searching “home energy rebates” and your state’s name.
When my spouse Don Summerfield and I first learned of the need to reduce our carbon load in 2006, back in the day of CFL light bulbs and little else, we made a plan. We figured that while juggling work, kids, and budgets we could afford to introduce one change into our lives per month. We began with an energy audit to learn what made sense for us. One month we only installed a clothesline; another, we bought our first Prius. In our first six years, we caulked cracks and insulated the walls and attic of our 100-year-old home; replaced the water heater; installed LED lights, a smart thermostat, and several ceiling fans; and changed a host of small habits. By 2012 we were using less than half the gas and electricity we had before, and in five more years we reduced to just over one-third. Planning and patience made it doable. This work saved us money, relieved some middle-class guilt, and gave us a more comfortable home.
AT THE SAME TIME, I WAS CONVENING A GREEN TEAM in the congregation Don pastored, First Presbyterian Church of Jeffersonville, Indiana. We started by recycling, including electronics recycling drives, and went on to energy conservation measures both small and large; selling fair trade products; conducting earth-centered worship and environmental religious education; starting a partnership with Christians in western Kenya to plant trees for schools, congregations, and hospitals; and installing two large solar arrays to power most of our church’s building. Through this work I learned some of the whys and hows of larger-scale energy conservation. I learned both how difficult it was to begin and how rewarding it is for congregations to start seeing themselves as earth care leaders.
BY 2018 I HAD RETIRED FROM TEACHING at Louisville Seminary and written a book for Westminster John Knox Press called Inhabiting Eden: Christians, the Bible, and the Ecological Crisis, and I was being invited to speak to congregations and groups across the country. Don had moved to a part-time church position, and we had four grandchildren to enjoy. We were no longer tied to the Louisville area, and wanted to live in the country amid gardens and wildlife. It's not everyone’s choice, but we had each dreamed of this life long before we met. We decided to build an all-electric zero-energy home that could generate as much power as it used and even charge an electric Chevy Bolt to take us to town.
I was all about straw bale walls and compostable toilets, but Don wisely objected, and we ended up with a house that looks conventional, but isn’t. With the help of Ted Clifton of Zero Energy Home Plans and local contractor Nick Romeo, in July 2019 we moved into a kilowatt-sipping solar-paneled home with well-positioned windows, thermal mass, balanced air circulation, LED lights, and energy-star appliances, including an induction cooktop. We got a 30 per cent federal tax credit for the solar system (including the panels, carport they sit on, solar inverter, and batteries), as well as for the ground-source heat pump and everything connected with it—heating, AC, and hot water. We had no idea that, by 2022, subsidies for such homes would come through the Inflation Reduction Act. We would not have waited for it, but now we hope it will continue to help everyone, in every state, at every income level, to free themselves for energy independence, since it was structured to give the most to lower-income households.
IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS WE HAVE UPDATED. I gave my Bolt to my daughter and, aided by a point-of-sale tax credit, bought an Equinox EV with a 315-mile range. Don upgraded from a gas guzzler to a Toyota RAV4 plug-in hybrid. With two cars to charge, we added eight more solar panels. To be clear: if your electric utility offers all-renewable energy and you don’t mind paying whatever it charges, you don’t need solar. If you want to go off-grid and relish the challenge of overcast winters, more power (literally) to you! But if you want to stay on grid and drive electric, and your utility still majors in gas and coal, generating the energy you use is an attractive option.
From our home we nurture vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, and now eight grandkids. We’ve created wildlife habitats of native trees and perennials, and increased our forest. We’ve become on-the-spot consultants for church groups and others who come to see how the house works and what tools and practices they might adopt. Many more have read or have attended webinars about our place, including one scheduled for Thursday, July 10 through Presbyterians for Earth Care. I’ve taught seminary classes in our home that combine Bible study, theology, ecology, and digging in the garden, encouraging students to pass their learning on to their future congregations. This year while traveling for my Horizons Bible Study Let Justice Roll Down: God’s Call to Care for Neighbors and All Creation. I also became a certified Electric Coach.
IT’S TIME TO ACT—AND TO TALK ABOUT IT WITH OTHERS. Cleaning up our lives, advocating with legislators and those we do business with, and modeling bold action for friends who may be losing hope are our obligation and privilege. The movement of dedicated, conscientious citizens working for the common good is growing. We are not only attending rallies, calling legislators, and refusing to be intimidated, but implementing technologies that enable us to walk the walk. Those of us who are older and have more time available are especially well positioned to roll up our sleeves, electrify with heat pumps, induction stoves, battery yard equipment, and EVs, and power our lives with renewable energy—and to show others what we are doing.
Our current moment may be envisioned as a forest in winter. Bare trees look dead. But deep underground, roots continue pushing through rocks, thickening, expanding, and sending nutrients upward for spring’s explosive growth. Renewable initiatives have not been stopped by the current administration’s priorities. Attempts to frustrate progress only makes citizens more determined and our plans more shock-proof. We can combat the daunting political forces and stand for an ever healthier future by making plans today to electrify our households.
About Trisha Tull
Patricia K. (Trisha) Tull is a Presbyterian minister, A. B. Rhodes Professor Emerita of Hebrew Bible at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, and author of Inhabiting Eden: Christians, the Bible, and the Ecological Crisis (2013), the 2024-2025 Horizons Bible Study Let Justice Roll Down: God’s Call to Care for Neighbors and All Creation, and the Smyth & Helwys commentaries on Isaiah 1-39 (2010) and Isaiah 40-66 (in press). She is a GreenFaith Fellow, Climate Reality presenter, certified permaculture designer and electric coach, 2016 recipient of the William Gibson Eco-Justice Award, 2019 distinguished alum of Austin Seminary, retired program director for Hoosier Interfaith Power and Light, and a member of the Third Act Faith Coordinating Committee.
Read this essay on our website.
“Going Deep” is one of two newsletters published by Third Act Faith. Our other newsletter, Third Acts of Faith, provides our members and subscribers with the month's latest “News & Views.” It is usually published on the third Thursday of each month.