Quote:
Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut
I'll see your anecdotes and raise you a literal BC Hydro report.
District heating (the subject in question, which doesn't necessarily need to run on LNG either) makes the process even more efficient. |
Historically the problem with "electric heating" is that it's inefficient when the SOURCE of the energy is THERMAL.
Eg, burn coal/gas for thermal generation - generate electricity - then use electricity to create thermal heat.
In BC this is reversed. Hydroelectric and Wind are mechanical energy sources to begin with. So the argument works FOR dropping thermal generation sources unless that thermal source (eg the Burnaby garbage incinerator) can also be used for district heating. (so heat generated is directly used as heat.)
But more to the point the least efficient electric heating is your baseboard electric heat registers that all the crappy apartment and "luxury" condo's use.
If you see these things:
https://www.rona.ca/en/product/stelpro-b...e-metal-baseboard-heater-b1502w-03915121
You have inefficient electric heating. Heat rises, these only heat the 2 feet in front of the wall until the heat rising in the room reaches the thermostat. Your legs will still be cold. The most efficient are radiant electric floor panels.
Anyway not the forum for this specific argument. Suffice it to say, "natural gas is bad" is only wrong when it's used to generate electricity.
The alternative, and better argument against natural gas is simply fire risk. People are inattentive, and natural gas stoves and fireplaces get left on and burn their places down. MDU's (eg apartments, condos and townhouses) should never have natural gas if the building is a combustible building (eg wood.) It's bad enough that idiots with candles burn their wooden homes down all the time, it's even more deadly when you want to build a timber structure over 4 stories and someone left a candle unattended on the second floor, everyone on the third and fourth floor is going to die if the fire department can't knock down the fire quick enough, or the sprinkler system isn't engineered properly. Quite honestly, I am dismayed that the BC Government went through with allowing 6 story wood buildings, much less 18. Those buildings better be strictly electric heating, non-smoking, and banned from having candles and barbeques.
Threaded Mode