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A comment on What went wrong with the Texas power grid?. Parent comment

Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by redisman on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @08:23PM (#26161412)
Why is it not good for heating? I'm sure resistance based electric heating is very efficient. I've lived in very cold places and the heat has almost always been electric or water heated by electric. You just need radiators. Northern European countries for example use that a lot and the temperatures are often as low as -22F. Of course they build to optimize for low temperatures unlike TX.
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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by cowboysauce on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @08:48PM (#26161592)
It’s more efficient to burn natural gas directly for heat than to use it to generate electricity which is then used for heating. Typical gas turbines are around 40% efficient, plus a few percent for transmission loses. Though apparently there are some cutting edge turbines that are 60% efficient.
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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by bpodgursky on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @01:28AM (#26163367)
It's more efficient, but not more environmentally friendly, given how much of Texas's grid is wind power (and increasingly solar).
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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by benlivengood on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @08:38PM (#26161536)
Boilers/furnaces are ~90% efficient now. Combined electrical/heat generation can only hit 50-80% efficiency.

In theory heat pumps powered by electricity would be the most efficient option.

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by kolencherry on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @09:04PM (#26161715)
Heat pumps don’t work particularly well below 25F. Our heat pump switched to auxiliary heat (electric resistance heating) with how cold it’s been in Texas.
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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by StillBored on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @11:17PM (#26162634)
Those are just the standard compressor/r410 systems with reversing valves. There are number of systems designed to work well below 0F.

https://www.mitsubishicomfort.com/benefits/hyper-heating https://www.fujitsugeneral.com/us/residential/technology/xlt...

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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by 8note on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @11:51PM (#26162845)
Theory would require some magical fluid to do the heat transfer, and we're limited to real coolants that don't have horrid environment impacts
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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by benlivengood on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @03:56PM (#26171656)
Or geothermal heat pumps for very cold and hot environments.
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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by Tossrock on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @09:24PM (#26161881)
Though, heat pumps lose efficiency in very cold weather, and right now it's very cold in Texas.
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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by jeffbee on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @08:30PM (#26161476)
Resistance heating is 100% efficient and therefore basically the least-efficient method. Heat pumps have coefficients of performance well over 1.0, even when the outside air is below zero degrees.
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Re:What went wrong with the Texas power grid? by fuzzfactor on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @03:49PM (#26171542)
It takes enough natual gas to heat three homes in order to generate the electricity to heat one home.
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