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How do San Francisco homes get heat? As I understand it, it gets cool enough in SF to require heating a lot of the time. If gas is banned, a lot of people switc

How do San Francisco homes get heat? As I understand it, it gets cool enough in SF to require heating a lot of the time. If gas is banned, a lot of people switch from gas to electric heat? Straining an already strained grid?

duskwuff 1y ago
> As I understand it, it gets cool enough in SF to require heating a lot of the time. Definitely not "a lot of the time". The coldest it gets is maybe 40°F on a particularly chilly winter night - with a well-insulated house you hardly even need central heat.
- deleted 1y ago
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- balfirevic 1y ago
  1. Are houses in SF well insulated? 2. 40°F is 4°C. That's cold. What do you expect the indoor temperature to be in those conditions, without heating?
  - ben_w 1y ago
    While I suspect 1. to resolve false, I wish to offer anecdote about what's possible: I'm currently living in a well insulated German new build, and over this last winter was wearing a T-shirt inside while it was actively snowing outside. The average combined power consumption of all things in this property is about 500 watts. It would be lower, but we didn't know how to correctly configure some of it in the first 6 months.
bradlys 1y ago
Heat pumps are very efficient form of heating. The nice part is that you can use them to cool the home too.
burnt-resistor 1y ago
While SF has microclimates, the weather goes from barely cold to barely warm. It doesn't really need heating or A/C very much. The thing though is that PG&E's (traditionally) lower costs for natural gas than electricity incentivize(d) the consumption and use of gas water heaters, clothes dryers, and stoves. If the city-county of SF or state wanted to address this as a policy level, they could slap a tax on natural gas. The thing though is they should help people afford the change to electric and on-going higher costs of electricity because people on fixed incomes cannot afford any changes.
_DeadFred_ 1y ago
Isn't gas also 4 times cheaper than electricity in San Francisco? Raising the power bill 4x might be worth considering.
edmundsauto 1y ago
A lot of places have centrally pumped steam, believe it or not! It's pretty neat, although difficult to control depending on the system install date. (Many places are quite old)

duskwuff 1y ago

> As I understand it, it gets cool enough in SF to require heating a lot of the time. Definitely not "a lot of the time". The coldest it gets is maybe 40°F on a particularly chilly winter night - with a well-insulated house you hardly even need central heat.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
balfirevic 1y ago
1. Are houses in SF well insulated? 2. 40°F is 4°C. That's cold. What do you expect the indoor temperature to be in those conditions, without heating?
- ben_w 1y ago
  While I suspect 1. to resolve false, I wish to offer anecdote about what's possible: I'm currently living in a well insulated German new build, and over this last winter was wearing a T-shirt inside while it was actively snowing outside. The average combined power consumption of all things in this property is about 500 watts. It would be lower, but we didn't know how to correctly configure some of it in the first 6 months.

bradlys 1y ago

Heat pumps are very efficient form of heating. The nice part is that you can use them to cool the home too.

burnt-resistor 1y ago

While SF has microclimates, the weather goes from barely cold to barely warm. It doesn't really need heating or A/C very much. The thing though is that PG&E's (traditionally) lower costs for natural gas than electricity incentivize(d) the consumption and use of gas water heaters, clothes dryers, and stoves. If the city-county of SF or state wanted to address this as a policy level, they could slap a tax on natural gas. The thing though is they should help people afford the change to electric and on-going higher costs of electricity because people on fixed incomes cannot afford any changes.

_DeadFred_ 1y ago

Isn't gas also 4 times cheaper than electricity in San Francisco? Raising the power bill 4x might be worth considering.

edmundsauto 1y ago

A lot of places have centrally pumped steam, believe it or not! It's pretty neat, although difficult to control depending on the system install date. (Many places are quite old)