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Comment by rb808 | Hacker News Reader

Solar & Batteries work great in California when peak demand is when its hot. In the frozen North though its different, esp if you want to replace gas/oil heating with heat pumps, peak demand would be cold nights in January.

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Peak demand for energy. But peak demand for electricity is during peak AC season just like California.

I don't think anyone is saying we're replacing natural gas to cook and heat with.

(At least I hope not, cooking with gas is an indulgence I partake of regularly.)

In the North, AC will simply not show up on your energy footprint. Heating will most definitely. So yeah, electric heating is is. I hate electric heating as a user, but nearly every apartment here in France has it. And since France is most nuclear, that's actually not bad in terms of CO2. For cooking there's induction, which easily competes with gas in terms of convenience IMHO, but yeah, for heating I'd like better solutions.

What's wrong with electric heating?

Why transfer 36% of a fire's energy hundreds of miles away to heat your home, when you can simply burn fire locally, and get 100% heat efficiency?

In cold climates, it's far cheaper to use gas heating.

Although in fairness, it would be interesting to make that comparison after accounting for external costs of both. CO2 emissions for gas, and nuclear plant decommission /storage in case ofnjuclear power like here in France

Interesting how there, the trade-off of electricity for nuclear is so advantageous, that you can even do inefficient things with the electricity downstream and still come out ahead.

Is electricity really cheap in France?

Interesting, AC uses a massive amount of electricity during the summer in Illinois, a place which doesn't spare on cold winters.

Certainly in the UK there is talk of trying to wean people off of using gas to heat homes.(1). Options to replace it are electric heat pumps and/or hydrogen-based systems.

Most people I know have abandoned gas hobs and replaced them with induction hobs - they feel a lot like cooking with gas (unlike halogen or ceramic ones), but are a lot more practical (e.g. cleaning, extra space etc) and better for air quality.

1 - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/13/hammond-...

> induction hobs - they feel a lot like cooking with gas

This really depends on the hobs. Bad ones are nowhere near gas quality and trend to regulate the heat by going a few seconds full power then few seconds off. Good ones regulate in a much smoother / more consistent way. We can't compare generic "induction hob" - it doesn't exist.

Gas cooking is probably my #1 primary source of CO2 emissions. I ought to switch to electric. Burning that gas at a weaker plant and sending it to me over the wires is still cleaner at a mg-CO2/joule than burning it at the point of use.

("primary" means I directly cause it; if I drove a car that would probably be my #1).

I wonder, how do gas cooking carbon emissions compare to your breathing and, well, other biological byproducts.

This is the key that people forget. Not all power source work equally as well in all areas. There is a need for a diversified energy portfolio.

I do want to follow this up saying that I fully support building as much solar and wind as we can. Not doing so is kinda dumb. Just saying it isn't a cure all.

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