Electric conversions, are they happening now?

[Roert42]

Anything is better then what I do.

I have electric base board heat.

 

[Dirtman]

Anything is better then what I do.

I have electric base board heat.

I had that in my frat house in college. Great for tiny individual rooms but holy crap the rest of the house was always freezing.

 

[Roert42]

I had that in my frat house in college. Great for tiny individual rooms but holy crap the rest of the house was always freezing.

I installed them when I didn't expect to be home 75% of the year, traveling for work. Now I am home every day and my electric bill is almost $600.

I have duct work for central heat, and a rusted out oil furnace. I think I would like to replace it with some kind of pellet burning furnace before next winter.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

"Green" vehicle just means it has low or 0 emissions as compare to ICE vehicle

So they can/should brag away about being "green" in that one aspect

I try to brag about how clean my green vehicle is at least once a day and twice on Sunday.

Everybody just laughs

Seriously I do try to keep it washed...

There are some of my neighbors that still use coal.

Pleanty of people burn wood or pellets too.

Wood, pellets and even corn are somewhat popular in my area yet.

Anything is better then what I do.

I have electric base board heat.

How those actually work on the inside:

My aunt and uncle has that, it works I guess but we learned at an early age the walls will try to kill you if you get too close.

 

[Dirtman]

My college landlord loved the electric baseboard heat cause sometimes the 10 bedroom house only had 2 tennants, so we were told NEVER OPEN THE DOORS TO ROOMS NO ONE IS IN! each room was independently heated. Its hard to do that with any other form of heating. Each room had a thermostat. With forced air or any other central heat its so complicated to cut it into individual rooms.

 

[sgtsandman]

There is no free lunch. Regardless of what energy source you go with, there is an environmental cost. It just might not be immediately generated by the user or at the generation point. That goes for wind, solar, and nuclear as well. In some ways, they are worse than what we predominantly use now.

 

[adsm08]

And unlike a wood stove, its central and heats the whole house.

I have a wood stove connected to my central heat and it heats the whole house.


Admittedly, it does perform that function better when the electric is working to run the fan to push the hot air.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

I still have a coal furnace. An octopus. It was replaced by a normal natural gas forced air heater but the entire octopus, vents, and coal chute still exist and work. I poop in it. I frequently burn nonsense in it...

That furnace gives me hope.

 

[Dirtman]

I have a wood stove connected to my central heat and it heats the whole house.


Admittedly, it does perform that function better when the electric is working to run the fan to push the hot air.

 

[DeathRanger]

Changes will need to be made and shift from using our energy to move energy, (using fuel to deliver fuel around the country), and instead generate energy locally.
Most electric cars are about 3-4 times as efficient as gas car so overall energy needs can be reduced.

electrifying all U.S. vehicles wipes out the same amount of primary energy as all U.S. power demand
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-opinion-renewables-will-power-future-of-us-energy/

 

[MikeG]

I'm running a fireplace insert in the GF's place, because the electric 'heat pump' thingy outside can't get the house above 60 when it's below 20 out. Oak came off the property, and the ashes will get dumped back on it. With the last ice storm, we have decades of fuel as little as it is needed. Damn, thought I was done splitting wood when I moved south.....

The U.S. power grid is in sad shape. Rolling blackouts in this area, too many people using electric heat. 'Alternative' sources of energy (wind farms all over west Texas) have overloaded the grid in the opposite direction, pushing power to the cities. Yeah it will catch up eventually, but utility companies spend a LOT on infrastructure. Wind isn't "free", the costs are just different, as is the pollution (yes, pollution to make steel for towers and aluminum or copper for transmission lines that can run hundreds of miles). And dino-fuel burned maintaining the right of ways, etc. (try driving a Telsa between here and Lubbock, never mind a work truck that only has batteries). Never mind the initial construction, or maintenance.

Likewise, battery tech is great, but look up 'rare earth elements'. Hey, why are they called rare?????? Uh..... shiploads of ore go to China, from South America, because it's cheaper to process than in places that have environmental rules Heck, I'd consider buying a Tesla if they weren't 3 or 4 times what my cheap car costs. Right now it isn't a good economic proposition.

Coal can be as clean or dirty as you want. Other than CO2, 'scrubbers' can take out the mercury, etc. At least in this country. The coal power plants in China that we export coal to? Uh..... maybe not as clean, and if you eat anything out of the Pacific.... guess what.....

Gets complicated, real quick.

 

[1990RangerinSK]

My college landlord loved the electric baseboard heat cause sometimes the 10 bedroom house only had 2 tennants, so we were told NEVER OPEN THE DOORS TO ROOMS NO ONE IS IN! each room was independently heated. Its hard to do that with any other form of heating. Each room had a thermostat. With forced air or any other central heat its so complicated to cut it into individual rooms.

That's not entirely true, sir.

First of all, steam or hot water can be easily divided into zones, where each room can have it's own zone. In that system, each zone has a pump to circulate the water, and a valve at one end of the zone to restrict water flow. Steam would operate on the same principle, without the pump.

Even forced hot air can be designed with a single heating plant, and multiple controlled zones. The system just closes dampers to the zones that are not calling for heat. It's harder to set up than hot water heat, but it can be done.

 

[Dirtman]

That's not entirely true, sir.

First of all, steam or hot water can be easily divided into zones, where each room can have it's own zone. In that system, each zone has a pump to circulate the water, and a valve at one end of the zone to restrict water flow. Steam would operate on the same principle, without the pump.

Even forced hot air can be designed with a single heating plant, and multiple controlled zones. The system just closes dampers to the zones that are not calling for heat. It's harder to set up than hot water heat, but it can be done.

Please don't quote me. I have a wonderful life ignoring you, I don't need to be alerted to your text. Do whatever you want, leave my name and my words out of it.

 

[DILLARD000]

I'm running a fireplace insert in the GF's place, because the electric 'heat pump' thingy outside can't get the house above 60 when it's below 20 out. Oak came off the property, and the ashes will get dumped back on it. With the last ice storm, we have decades of fuel as little as it is needed. Damn, thought I was done splitting wood when I moved south.....
The U.S. power grid is in sad shape. Rolling blackouts in this area, too many people using electric heat. 'Alternative' sources of energy (wind farms all over west Texas) have overloaded the grid in the opposite direction, pushing power to the cities. Yeah it will catch up eventually, but utility companies spend a LOT on infrastructure. Wind isn't "free", the costs are just different, as is the pollution (yes, pollution to make steel for towers and aluminum or copper for transmission lines that can run hundreds of miles). And dino-fuel burned maintaining the right of ways, etc. (try driving a Telsa between here and Lubbock, never mind a work truck that only has batteries). Never mind the initial construction, or maintenance.
Likewise, battery tech is great, but look up 'rare earth elements'. Hey, why are they called rare?????? Uh..... shiploads of ore go to China, from South America, because it's cheaper to process than in places that have environmental rules Heck, I'd consider buying a Tesla if they weren't 3 or 4 times what my cheap car costs. Right now it isn't a good economic proposition.
Coal can be as clean or dirty as you want. Other than CO2, 'scrubbers' can take out the mercury, etc. At least in this country. The coal power plants in China that we export coal to? Uh..... maybe not as clean, and if you eat anything out of the Pacific.... guess what.....
Gets complicated, real quick.

Born & raised in Tx, but really haven't missed it in the last 35+ years.
Last time I drove thru SouthWest Tx, expecting the usual wide open Mesquite & PricklyPear vistas & occasional field of BlueBonnets.
Instead, seeing hundreds of giant wind turbines & endless new high voltage power lines.
Progress I guess, but it saddened me.