Going all electric

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nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,272
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/home-pge-electric-upgrade-17832767.php
This S.F. homeowner tried to go all-electric. Her case shows the extraordinary effort that can take

My house was built with 200A service because it was originally all electric. Thankfully converted to forced air natural gas heating so I can run the gas furnace with only a few hundred watts using battery backup AC or generator during a power outage emergency in winter.

What do the gas guys say?

https://www.aga.org/report-finds-gas-heating-beats-cold-climate-heat-pumps-on-cost-and-emissions/
Natural Gas Homes are Lowest-Cost and Lowest-Emissions, Even Compared to Homes with Electric Cold-Climate Heat Pumps
 

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,040
One of the most efficient heat pumps uses groundwater instead of air as the heat exchange medium. Ground water, even here in the deep south, has a year-round temperature of just above 70° F, only a few feet below grade. So, in the winter you are using 70°F water instead of 20-60°F air and in the summer also 70°F water instead of 90°+ air as the heat exchange medium. Most systems use a contained and pumped buried "ground loop" of black poly piping filled with propylene glycol and water. Here on the coast, I used single pass pressurized well water with a low-pressure regulator and solenoid valve on the intake to the heat pump heat exchanger and open pipe discharge to the drainage ditch into the marsh. Worked very well up until the night that the pressurized PVC pipe into the heat pump broke and flooded the house. That was the downside of using single pass pressurized well water instead of an unpressurized closed loop pumped system. At least the insurance company paid for all new carpet in the house after we spent days drying it out.
 

Ian0

Joined Aug 7, 2020
9,815
Natural Gas Homes are Lowest-Cost and Lowest-Emissions, Even Compared to Homes with Electric Cold-Climate Heat Pumps
That depends very much on where in the world you live!
Natural gas gives 185g/kWh of CO2. Say about 195g/kWh into the central heating from an average condensing boiler.
An average heatpump has a coefficient of performance of about 3.
CO2/kWh from electricity varies according to your location:
France: 73g/kWh
Britain: 193g/kWh
Germany: 380g/kWh
USA: 388g/kWh

So for a heat-pump, with a COP of 3, you are producing:
France: 24g/kWh
Britain: 64g/kWh
Germany: 127g/kWh
USA: 130g/kWh

The heat pump wins every time, except perhaps when its COP falls in cold weather.

Burning propane it's 220g/kWh and 245g/kWh for heating oil (kerosene)
 
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