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by maria2 1274 days ago
Very few places use electricity for heat. It’s super inefficient unless you use a heat pump, and residential heat pumps typically don’t work too far below freezing.
2 comments

Most furnaces require electricity to run even if the heat isn’t generated by electricity.
Exactly
Very few? Maybe for single family homes, but electric heat is very common in apartments - Every apartment I've ever lived in had electric baseboard heaters.

Apparently it's #2 is the US with 37% of homes.

https://www.climatecentral.org/news/your-heating-fuel-depend...

Now that I live in a single family house I use oil to heat the house - but the boiler requires electricity.

37% makes sense. When you live in a moderate climate and minimally need heating, low capex and high opex makes sense.

Too bad so many air conditioners don’t have reversing valves. One day I want to install a window-shaker “the wrong way” and see how well it works as a heater.

As an alternative, one could put water containers in their freezer and throw the ice outside as it freezes as a rudimentary sneakernet liquid<-> solid phase change heat pump.