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Better search for natural sockets instead of natural gas reservoirs I guess. Heating water with electricity is expensive and depending on energy production not

Better search for natural sockets instead of natural gas reservoirs I guess. Heating water with electricity is expensive and depending on energy production not more ecological. The expensive part is probably secondary for people building in NYC anyway, but I don't think it should be a general recommendation. I work for a company that also builds electrical water heaters and heat pumps and business is very good, not complaining, but electricity is a high value form of energy and I don't think we are in a place to switch yet. It is worthwhile for someone with a house and if some parameters are right and you also invest in solar and batteries, you can have a pretty nice setup. It still requires a lot of up front investment and you can break even at some point. But at first you would only do it for your love of nature. At least that is the situation in the northern part of Europe, the situation might be different in the US.

mytailorisrich 5y ago
Energy production is moving to electricity only. Based on that the simplest and most efficient is probably to use electricity directly for everything at home. There are discussions of reusing the gas distribution infrastructure for hydrogen, but hydrogen would be produced with electricity as energy source. So hydrogen is just storage with probably a lower efficiency overall although electricity transmission incurs quite some losses.
- onecommentman 5y ago
  The assertion that “energy production is moving to electricity only” is not supported by use data for the US over the last 10 years. https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/charts/Energy/Energy_2010_United-States_US.png https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/charts/Ene... https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/charts/Energy/Energy_2020_United-States.png https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/charts/Ene... These are Lawrence Livermore National Labs (Larry Labs for short) energy flow diagrams (first developed in the 1970s) describing US energy production and use, and with which every US energy professional is familiar. I recommend anyone with even a casual interest to take a look…

mytailorisrich 5y ago

Energy production is moving to electricity only. Based on that the simplest and most efficient is probably to use electricity directly for everything at home. There are discussions of reusing the gas distribution infrastructure for hydrogen, but hydrogen would be produced with electricity as energy source. So hydrogen is just storage with probably a lower efficiency overall although electricity transmission incurs quite some losses.

onecommentman 5y ago
The assertion that “energy production is moving to electricity only” is not supported by use data for the US over the last 10 years. https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/charts/Energy/Energy_2010_United-States_US.png https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/charts/Ene... https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/charts/Energy/Energy_2020_United-States.png https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/charts/Ene... These are Lawrence Livermore National Labs (Larry Labs for short) energy flow diagrams (first developed in the 1970s) describing US energy production and use, and with which every US energy professional is familiar. I recommend anyone with even a casual interest to take a look…