Indeed, efficiency is the key. That is why I was not too worried about using the existing gas connection for heating purposes, but switching to heatpump appliances (which *move* easily 4x the amount of heat they consume) makes them an easy winner in terms of efficiency. As for using gas for cooking: it is easy to waste a lot of the heat, never reaching the pot and being pulled outside by the hood vent, it needs careful matching of pot side and how far you turn up a flame to get the best efficiency - even the difference between placing a cover on the pot or not, makes a huge difference. Induction cooking guarantees almost all energy ends up in the pot, making its transfer of energy much more efficient than a gas or standard electric stove. Whether it is more efficient overall (including generation and transportation losses) I am not sure, the drive for electric cooking is mostly done to avoid the burn products of (mostly) methane affecting our indoor air quality. Regarding space heating, water heating and even clothes drying, a heatpump certainly has the best cards for efficiency and as you indicate, in conjunction with solar (on the home or local generated, which avoids transportation loss and which *should* be unburdened by transportation charges - but usually isn't) is a good way to avoid burning fossil fuel to run the electric appliance. Cor.
On Fri, Dec 3, 2021 at 6:04 PM nathan christiansn via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: > > The problem I have with using electricity for heat is that as an entire > system, it is less efficient unless your electricity usage is 100% covered > by solar panels. However, heat pumps may be an exception to this - it > probably depends on where you live. I am not entirely sure. > > For example, say that 100% of your electricity comes from natural gas. I am > making up numbers here, but let's say the generator is 50% efficient, and > you have a 5% transmission loss. By the time that energy is turned into > heat by your electric stove/space heater, 47.5% of the energy has been > wasted. If you have just burned the natural gas in the first place, you > could probably get somewhere in the 80-90%(or higher) efficiency range. > > I know that not all of our energy comes from natural gas, but 40% of it is. > Another 19% is produced by coal, and only 40% are produced by clean energy > sources such as hydro, solar, or nuclear. It seems like it would be much > less wasteful to just burn natural gas directly. > > Heat pumps are interesting though as they have the potential to move more > heat energy than the energy they consume as electricity. > > Anyway, that's my take on it. I would love to hear opposing viewpoints. > > Nathan > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20211203/6b279d91/attachment.html> > _______________________________________________ > Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ > LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
