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This is putting the cart before the horse. Heating homes with natural gas (which the article clarifies is the source of the majority of the emissions) is curre
by whiddershins 5y ago
This is putting the cart before the horse.
Heating homes with natural gas (which the article clarifies is the source of the majority of the emissions) is currently far more efficient than with electricity.
If everyone in NYC switched to electric heat, the grid would certainly fail.
Additionally the grid uses a lot of natural gas for energy production.
Once all the electric production is green, and we have lots of extra capacity, it might make sense to look at reducing natural gas service to homes.
Until then, doing this will actually just make more emissions.
- phicoh 5y agoHeating a home with a heatpump is a net win compared to gas in many parts of the world even when the electricity required is made with gas. The reason is that the heatpump moves heat (from outside to inside) which is more efficient than generating heat directly. Obviously there needs to be a plan to upgrade the grid to deal with electric heating, cooking, cars, etc.
- kevindong 5y ago> If everyone in NYC switched to electric heat, the grid would certainly fail. Not to mention cost of heating in the winter would balloon to comical heights. Housing costs would also increase, but to a less degree, since utilities are a part of housing costs. Resistive heating is absurdly electricity intensive.