this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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It's not a distraction so much as it's the bait. Gas cooking gets the utility serviced to the building, which enables the gas furnace vs electric heat pump conversation. Gas furnace is cheaper up front, so that's what goes into suburbia.
Builders and developers will always do the absolutely cheapest thing possible to stay competitive, and will only do better when they're either legislated to or consumers demand it. Home builders associations lobby to keep minimum requirements ... minimal, and most consumers just see pretty showers and big kitchen islands, so this is why we still build houses like it's 1980.
Always amuses me how many people care about gas mileage on a $50k car but couldn't give two shits if their $2m home is efficient.
Source: I'm a home designer who frequently has this conversation and that's usually how it goes down.
Then you are living in an area that is running a bit behind.
Once you electrify heating, no one is going to pay for a gas line in new construction.
We (Netherlands) had these conversations go down like this 5 years ago. Now, no new home construction is running a gas line.
Canada, and yeah when it comes to how we build we are definitely behind. Oil and gas is so entrenched in the economy, especially western provinces, that any going against that is blasphemy to a significant chunk of the population. It will get better though. We can already do better, the incentive just isn't there.
I'm a certified passive house designer and I'm always jealous of all the products and materials available in Europe!
Do you guys all have fireplaces and generators?
No, our electric grid has been extremely reliable.
I couldn’t trust that, and it only gets to like -11F around here.
If you don't have reliable electricity, then get a generator or wood stove.
That's what rural folk do all around the world.
That’s why I led with that
Wood stove as backup is pretty common in some parts of the US anyways. Heat pump + wood stove = not much physical labor + cheap to operate + backup heat for ice storms