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In much of Europe electric heaters are used in much the same way. The American practice of using natural gas heaters always seems… crazy to many of us. (Especi
by gsnedders 7y ago
In much of Europe electric heaters are used in much the same way. The American practice of using natural gas heaters always seems… crazy to many of us. (Especially in areas where there's already electrical supply!)
- Scoundreller 7y agoGas is cheap in America and it's not like Russia can flip a switch and make us shiver.
- catalogia 7y agoElectric makes sense if you've got a good clean source of power like nuclear, solar or wind. But if you're getting power by burning fossil fuels then it seems more efficient to use that heat directly rather than to use the heat to generate steam to turn a turbine to turn a generator to produce electricity, and then turn that electricity back into heat again.
- Scoundreller 7y agoFor indoor heating, sure, but these are outdoor switches. Propane/natural gas switch heating is like sitting in-front of a campfire, while electric would be like having a heating pad on your skin. Or maybe the electric ones are just blowers too with one central heating point and a bunch of vents. Dunno.
- zdragnar 7y agoElectric heating pad and tape usually have a pretty short lifespan; the kind you might get to prevent ice dams on old, poorly insulated eaves / roofs might maybe last 5 years if you have cold winters. Higher grade industrial elements might last longer, but nat. gas is going to be significantly more cost effective in the US
- catalogia 7y agoSome of the electric heaters are blowers (https://www.rwy.com/products-rwy/track-heaters-accessories/electric-hot-air-blowers/ https://www.rwy.com/products-rwy/track-heaters-accessories/e...) while others use heating elements in direct contact with the tracks (https://spectruminfrared.com/railroad-products-and-track-switch-heaters/flat-jacket-snow-melters-and-crib-heaters/ https://spectruminfrared.com/railroad-products-and-track-swi...). I suspect any of these mechanisms, however they work, are going to be wildly inefficient. The very premise of melting ice outside in the winter on big pieces of metal exposed to the elements seems like a huge energy sink. Whether electric heating is sufficiently more efficient to offset the inefficiencies in power generation and transmission I couldn't say, but it's far from clear to me that the 'American method' of using propane is crazy.
- the_mitsuhiko 7y agoGas heated switches were common in Europe too. Operators switched not for cost or environmental reasons but ease of operation.
- jjeaff 7y agoThe European practice of using Russian natural gas at all while they are literally using that money to attack and annex other European countries seems crazy to us.
- Scoundreller 7y agoThey’d rather not think about it.
- anoncake 7y agoHeating with fossil fuels is a lot more efficient than heating with electricity made from fossil fuels. Power plants have an efficiency of at most 60%, the rest is wasted heating the plant. Burning the fuel on-site converts 100% to heat where it's needed.