Electric Heating Guide

Electricity is expensive to make and transport, but it is our most flexible energy source, able to run just about anything from our lights to computers. But does it make any sense to use for heating? If you take a systems approach, perhaps it can.

What is Electric Heating?

Straight resistance heating; run a current through a wire of the right resistance and it heats up. Run it through a finer, special wire and it becomes a light bulb. All the rage in the '50s when we were taught to "live better electrically." As recently as the '80s, governments were giving out subsidies to homeowners to convert to it.

Why we like it

At the point of output, it is clean, with no products of combustion at all. It is flexible, and can be easily adjusted room by room with individual thermostats. It is really cheap to install. Even the US Department of Energy has said:

"In some cases, small space heaters can be less expensive to use if you only want to heat one room or supplement inadequate heating in one room. They can also boost the temperature of rooms used by individuals who are sensitive to cold, especially elderly persons, without overheating your entire home."

What we worry about

In the United States, about half of the electricity is generated from burning coal, and therefore using electricity to heat has a huge carbon footprint. The distribution system is also exposed to the vagaries of the weather.

Eco-factor of Electric Heating

Here is where it gets interesting. In Canada's Province of Quebec, almost everyone heats with electricity, and almost all the electricity comes from carbon-free hydro-electric power. Production of the electricity is clean, as is the conversion of it into heat. (It should also be noted that their dependence on electricity led to a disaster when it was knocked out by an ice storm)

One could imagine a mix of very well insulated houses with smart controls, clean energy sources like wind and hydro power and a smart grid delivering, all working together to deliver electricity at offpeak times, perhaps storing the heat in floors that have good thermal mass, warming up rooms only when people are in them and when the sun isn't shining on the floors.

One can also imagine that in a passive or almost-passive house that rarely needs much heat, the low cost of equipment and quick response time might make electric heating the most sensible and flexible source of supplementary heating.

Cost of Electric Heating

By far, the most expensive source of energy we use. But also the most flexible.

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