The Contractor’s Guide to Electrification Mandates: What Building Code Changes Mean for Your Bids

Electrification mandates in construction are changing the rules for electrical, plumbing and mechanical (MEP) contractors. If you bid work in a state or city with new energy codes, you’ve probably already felt the shift.

Maybe you’ve seen plans that call for a heat pump water heater where a gas unit used to go. Maybe a job got flagged during plan review because the panel size didn’t match the new load.

These code changes show up directly in your takeoff, in how you size your bid and how much room you have for error.

This guide breaks down what electrification mandates require, where they come from and how they change the way you estimate a job. It focuses on the practical information you need to bid accurately and win the right work.

What Are Electrification Mandates in Construction?

Building electrification mandates are code rules that push new construction — and sometimes major renovations — away from gas-powered equipment and toward electric equipment.

Depending on the city or state, that can mean an outright ban on gas equipment. Or it can mean the code requires the building to be wired and ready for an electric switch down the road, even if gas goes in today.

Either way, the code has a say in a decision that used to sit entirely with the owner or design team.

That’s the part that matters most for a bid. The code decides a chunk of your scope before you ever pick up a pencil.

The Shift From Fossil Fuels to Electric-Powered Systems

These codes phase out older systems like natural gas furnaces, gas boilers and gas water heaters. In their place, you’ll see:

• Heat pumps for heating and cooling
• Induction cooktops instead of gas ranges
• Heat pump water heaters instead of tank-style gas units

A heat pump system pulls a different electrical load than a gas furnace ever did. That load change affects your panel sizing, your wire runs and your equipment pricing.

Banned vs. Restricted Equipment

Depending on the city or state, you’ll run into a mix of outright bans and partial restrictions. The equipment most often affected includes:

• Gas-fired central furnaces and hydronic boilers
• Commercial gas water heating units
• Commercial gas cooking lines, in some municipal codes
• Direct gas line hookups and meter connections

Whether an item on that list is banned outright or just requires “electrification-ready” wiring depends on the jurisdiction.

Knowing which category a project falls into — before the numbers get locked in — keeps a bid grounded in the right code.

That check matters for retrofits, too. What counts as a “major renovation” that triggers these rules varies by code. It’s worth confirming the exact threshold for a jurisdiction before assuming a remodel is exempt.

Where Are These Mandates Coming From?

Electrification codes come from more than one place, which is part of why they’re easy to misjudge on a bid. State lawmakers, city councils and national model code groups all write rules that most areas eventually adopt.

State-Specific Building Code Policies

A handful of states got out ahead of this trend.

California’s Title 24 code, the state’s building energy standard, doesn’t ban gas outright statewide. But it updates on a three-year cycle and keeps leaning harder into electrification.

The 2022 code introduced electric-ready rules starting in January 2023. The current 2025 cycle builds on those rules, adding electric-ready requirements and heat pump baselines for many building types.

New York passed its All-Electric Buildings Act, which phases out gas equipment in new buildings on a set timeline. Washington state’s energy code has moved in a similar direction.

It’s also worth knowing that this legal landscape has shifted.

A federal appeals court ruling against a California gas-hookup ban has pushed some West Coast cities to trade outright bans for reach codes and electrification-ready requirements instead.

That’s one more reason to confirm the current, active code for a project instead of relying on what a city required a year or two ago.

None of this covers the whole country yet. Only a handful of states have adopted mandates this direct. But the list of cities layering on their own reach codes keeps growing.

Municipal Building Code Policies

Below the state level, plenty of cities have their own “reach codes.” These are local add-on rules that go further than the state baseline.

Denver and Seattle, for example, have building energy codes that restrict fossil fuel equipment in new construction.

Boston takes a different approach. It uses a building performance standard — a rule that requires large existing buildings to cut their energy use or emissions over time — rather than banning gas in new ones.

A contractor working across city lines in one of these metro areas can’t assume the code stays the same from one jobsite to the next.

Model Energy Codes (IECC and ASHRAE 90.1)

Even in places without a hard electrification mandate, the model codes are shifting.

Two national code documents drive a lot of this:

1. The International Energy Conservation Code, or IECC
2. ASHRAE 90.1, a commercial energy standard published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers

States and cities often adopt these as their own baseline.

The 2021 IECC introduced the first major electric-ready provisions, requiring dedicated circuits and panel space for future electric equipment. The 2024 IECC expanded on that.

ASHRAE 90.1-2022 followed with tighter building envelope requirements. That means more insulation, better windows and tighter air-sealing — so a building loses less cold air to the summer heat. It also added equipment efficiency rules that favor high-efficiency heat pump systems.

When a jurisdiction adopts one of these editions, pre-wiring for future electric vehicle (EV) chargers and heat pumps becomes part of the code. That’s true even on a project where gas equipment gets approved today.

This matters for an estimator just as much as an outright ban does. The extra conduit, the spare breaker space and the added panel room still belong on the takeoff, even when the gas line goes in as planned.

Federal Incentives and the Inflation Reduction Act

Federal money adds another layer to this picture too.

Section 179D, a tax deduction for energy-efficient commercial buildings, and Section 45L, a tax credit for energy-efficient new homes, both reward owners for going electric. Rebate programs tied to the Inflation Reduction Act can add to that.

These programs have changed before and could change again, so it’s worth confirming what’s currently active before counting on them in a proposal.

Even so, financial incentives are one more reason all-electric bid requests can show up on a project with no local mandate at all. An owner chasing a stronger return on the building doesn’t need a mandate to ask for electric equipment.

How Electrification Codes Directly Impact Subcontractor Scopes

These code changes don’t land the same way on every trade. MEP contractors each feel a different kind of scope shift, and the takeoff needs to reflect it.

Electrical Contractors: Heavy Load Increases and Infrastructure Requirements

All-electric buildings pull more power than a mixed-fuel building ever did. Service size has to keep up with that load.

In many all-electric jurisdictions — on larger residential builds and commercial projects alike — a standard 200A service is being upsized to 300A or 400A. That bigger service handles the new peak load from heat pumps, induction cooking and EV charging combined.

This bump in service size flows through the rest of the takeoff:

• Bigger transformers
• Larger distribution panels
• More feeder conduit
• Smart panel load management systems (in some cases)

These systems shift or throttle electrical loads automatically so the panel never exceeds its rated capacity.

Mechanical and Plumbing Contractors: System Redesign Needs

For mechanical and plumbing crews, the equipment itself changes, not just its size. A simple gas piping takeoff turns into a much more involved heat pump system estimate — refrigerant lines, heat recovery equipment and electric backup systems are all in the mix.

Coordination with the electrical scope also takes up more time on these jobs. Heat pump equipment needs dedicated circuits and disconnects that used to fall entirely on someone else’s scope.

On an all-electric job, mechanical work and electrical work overlap in ways they never did on a standard gas system. A clean handoff between trades carries more weight than it used to.

Key Estimating and Takeoff Challenges Under Electrification Rules

Getting the equipment list right only covers half the job. The bigger risk sits in the estimating details that are easy to miss on a first pass.

Accounting for “Electrification-Ready” Pre-Wiring

Some codes let a contractor install gas equipment today as long as the building gets wired for an electric switch tomorrow. That means:

• Dual-fuel panels
• Dedicated spare breaker slots
• High-capacity conduit runs sized for equipment that isn’t even going in yet

Here’s a common scenario.

A strip mall project keeps its gas rooftop units for now, but the code requires spare breaker room and conduit stubbed out for future heat pumps. Those items are easy to miss if the takeoff only reflects the gas equipment going in today.

Building them into the estimate up front keeps the bid accurate and avoids a costly surprise once the building is inspected against the full code.

Scope Changes and Regional Code Differences

Bidding across city and county lines gets trickier when neighboring areas set different fossil fuel rules. A job five miles away might follow a totally different rulebook.

Picture two contractors bidding on matching buildings in adjacent towns. One town requires all-electric. The other still allows gas.

On paper, the two projects look almost identical, but the scopes end up very different once the code gets applied.

Pulling the exact local code for each project site, before finalizing the numbers, keeps a bid priced to the right standard.

A quick call to the local building or planning department — or a look at the jurisdiction’s published code adoption page — is usually enough to confirm exactly which version applies.

Avoiding Material Takeoff Errors in All-Electric Designs

Heavy commercial heat pump equipment needs bigger wire gauge, larger panel sizes and specialized disconnects. A standard gas-system takeoff template won’t catch these details on its own.

Getting any of these components under-sized on paper can mean an expensive correction once the job is underway.

Building the takeoff around the actual electrical demands of the new equipment keeps the numbers grounded from the start.

Preparing Your Bidding Strategy for All-Electric Construction

These challenges don’t call for slowing down the bidding process.

They call for building a better one.

Standardize Assemblies for Electric HVAC and Water Heating

Building digital takeoff templates for heat pump systems, EV charging infrastructure and heavy-duty electrical distribution saves the trouble of rebuilding the same estimate from scratch every time.

Once a solid assembly exists for a heat pump water heater or a heat pump system, an estimator can reuse it. They just adjust it for project-specific details instead of starting over.

Collaborate Early with Engineers During Pre-Construction

Utility service upgrade delays are easier to catch during pre-construction than after the price is already locked in.

A call with the design engineer before finalizing the bid can catch service capacity issues, confirm equipment specs and head off a scope surprise mid-project.

Adapting Your Takeoffs for the Electric Future

Electrification mandates in construction are moving past a handful of early-adopter states and into a national standard for how buildings get built and equipped.

Panel sizes are growing. Gas equipment is disappearing from more spec sheets. Estimating accuracy under these codes now depends on catching every wire, breaker and conduit run tied to the new electric load.

McCormick, an all-in-one takeoff and estimating software for MEP contractors, is built to handle that complexity. It gives estimators:

• A comprehensive assemblies database
• Built-in PDF takeoff
• Pre-populated labor units and pricing

That combination makes it possible to build accurate, code-ready bids without rebuilding the process for every all-electric job that comes through the door.

McCormick also has responsive, in-house U.S.-based support to back up the platform, so a contractor is never stuck guessing on a takeoff detail alone.

To see how McCormick handles heat pump takeoffs, panel sizing and code-driven scope changes in real time, book a demo and talk with someone who works with contractors navigating these code changes every day.