Decarbonizing Residential Heating

For example, to become the dominant form of heating depending on the weather, in many cases in the future due to lower costs and ease of 1 kWh of electricity can be used to deliver installation.15 3 kWh of heat, meaning that it is 300% efficient (this is described as having a CHALLENGES coefficient of performance (COP) of 3).14 Meeting the increased demand for An additional advantage of heat pumps. [...] GSHPs are more heat when it is cold.17 While less than 10% of efficient than ASHPs as the temperature Canadian total heat demand occurs below below ground is more constant, but they -10°C, and in some parts of the country it is have much higher upfront costs, and the unlikely to get this cold, it is still necessary need for land for drilling and placing an to be able to meet cold peak heating days. [...] As an example, due to District heating and cooling (DHC) is the its reliance on electric-resistive heating, centralized production and supply of Quebec has the highest winter electricity thermal energy that is distributed through demand in Canada, over 40 GW in 2023.19 a “district” or a region of a city or even a In comparison peak summer demand in single building. [...] crematorium in Aalborg, Denmark; from the underground subway in London, UK; and In a study on the effects of electrification from wastewater in Cologne, Germany.26 in Ontario, peak demand in the province In Canada, Vancouver has a system was seen as more than doubling to 45 GW recovering heat from wastewater,27 and in due to space heating under a net-zero Toronto, a hospital is using a similar sys. [...] A clear cut-off date for the replacement of fossil heating should be set to allow the At the same time the needs and the costs of industry time to transition.