If you buy heat pumps for the house, and make the electricity with gas, about half the energy making the electricity is lost, but when the heat pump heats the house, it's 5 times more efficient.
So the net result is that it requires less than half the gas to heat the house with heat pumps, even if the electricity is made with gas.

Heat pumps are brilliant. 🥰

[–] Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

It doesn't matter how the electricity is made. Heat pumps are crazy efficient. What matters (for the typical consumer) is how much it costs to heat up the home via traditional methods vs that in the electricity of heat pumps. That said, your toaster, or electric oven/kettle all generate heat at ~98% efficiency with some energy lost as light and due to resistance in the wires. A heat pump transfers heat at well over 100% efficiency. You get more heat energy than it requires in electricity. 💪

Efficiency degrades the colder it gets though which is its only drawback. Some places are too cold and would require deep deep monster backyard installations to work well, but here 'too cold' is ~ -16^o^C.

A side benefit of heat pumps using electricity is that it can be supported with modern green energy tech. Don't want to be dependent on the grid either electrical or gas? Add solar panels to your roof and boom you're good to go (this is obviously reductive).

Edit: I'm talking about direct home heating/cooling solutions. I know nothing about industrial grid energy production. For me the benefits of heat pumps are clear particularly for individual purposes.

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago

Resistive heat is 100% efficient minus the tiny bit of heat lost in the wires inside your walls. The light will eventually convert to thermal enegry once it is absorbed.

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 2 points 5 days ago

Better yet I live in an area where wind supplies most of the energy for my heat bump.