Electric heat wasted energy despite perfect in-home efficiency.

Evidence

Yet the energy savings from the increased use of insulation were more than offset by the wastefulness of electric heat. The total amount of energy needed to heat a home with electricity was much higher than the amount required to heat with gas or oil. Though electric heat was a marvel of efficiency in the home – no energy escaped up a furnace flue – the production and distribution of electricity were terribly inefficient. Even in the 1980s, only 29 percent of the energy used to generate electricity ultimately was usable at the end of the line. With gas or oil heating, in contrast, the overall energy efficiency ranged from 50 to 65 percent. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 283

Categorization

• XREF: The two-thirds energy lost in generation echoes the thermodynamics-through-infrastructure theme of the energy and tract-housing chapters. — connects to: Electric utilities marketed heat by betting on future atomic cheapness. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 272; Tract housing’s design deficiencies directly generated residential energy demand — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 264

Broader Connections

• Tract housing’s design deficiencies directly generated residential energy demand #expands (0.75) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 264