Renewable Energy for Heating

Discussion

Christian Siefkes:

"Heating with electricity is extremely wasteful, so you wouldn't do the world a favor if you do that. For heating with renewable energy, solar water heating <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_heating> and geothermal heating <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heating / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heat_pump> are worth checking out. Or maybe pellet stoves <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellet_stove>, but that's not optimal either, as pellets are made from wood (biomass). Earth's surface is pretty limited, meaning that there simply isn't enough space to grow all the wood that would be needed for large-scale biomass heating.

Sadly, solar thermal and geothermal energy are really only for people who own their own houses, or who have a say in how their building should be heated. For people living in rented apartments (like I do, too), there is currently not very much we can do, I'm afraid." (networked labour mailing list, January 2015)