alt Hacker News> only ~20-30% of the energy in the fuel turns into useful work, while electricity is much, much more efficient. So, we need much less of it.
Isn't a lot of energy used for heating, not work?
Replies
bluGill • today at 6:22 PM
Maybe, but that other 70-80% is waste - we could turn it into useful heat, but instead we vent it to the environment.
I've seen plans to run an engine in your furnace, thus creating both electric (at 20-30%, and capturing the rest as heat to the house. I've never seen this in the real world and experts who have looked as those systems said they won't enter a building that has one using that design. (it is possible to make a design they would trust, but they haven't seen any)
Yes but by a weird coincidence most of that heat can be provided by heat pumps at a similar 3-5x ratio.