Still To Be Determined 281: Digitizing Home Electrification - Zero Homes CEO Grant Gunnison
Sep 10, 2025
Grant Gunnison, CEO and founder of Zero Homes and an MIT-educated engineer, discusses his innovative approach to home electrification. He explains how his platform utilizes smartphone photos and AI to streamline energy assessments without in-person visits. Gunnison shares insights on the challenges of retrofitting homes and the common resistance from contractors to new technology. As Zero Homes expands across states and partners with utilities, he also highlights the future homeowner experience and the importance of integrating value for both customers and contractors.
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Remote Digitization Replaces In-Person Visits
- Zero Homes digitizes a home's layout with phone photos and video to design and quote electrification projects remotely.
- This eliminates the need for time-consuming in-person sales visits and speeds up decision-making for homeowners.
From Family Contractor To Space Engineer To Founder
- Grant left MIT to run his family's contracting business after his father died, then returned to engineering and NASA before founding Zero Homes.
- His contracting experience combined with ML work in his lab inspired the smartphone-photo-based assessment idea.
Old Homes Hold The Biggest Emissions Problem
- Most of the climate problem in housing is retrofitting existing homes because 80% of 2050 homes already exist.
- Building new homes alone won't scale to solve single-family housing emissions.