The most eco-friendly heating options

Regardless of the type of system you use, we offer some tips to get the most out of your home heating:

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Choice might consider the addition of a behind the meter home battery as another way to improve on the Eco-friendly credibility of the home reverse cycle air conditioning.

It may not tick the box for the cost short term, but that also depends on what one might self justify for making one more small step towards a lower carbon future. There are dealer 4WD accessory upgrades that can add more to the cost of a new vehicle, than a modest home battery. Noted Choice omitted cost from the topic title. :wink:

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Different attributes were mentioned under each type of heating but not across all types. This is confusing and makes it hard to compare the types.

First example; the health effects of burning gas and wood are mentioned but not those of burning coal. Burning coal to make electricity is exporting the problem to elsewhere. Those who live downwind of the power station plume get it while the rest of us don’t. To reduce the risks of health effects of unflued gas heaters you say to have them serviced regularly. The other option of a flued gas heater, which sends toxins up the chimney isn’t mentioned. But that option is much less efficient as much heat also goes up the chimney.

Second example; GHG gas emissions are mentioned but only selectively. So you conclude that burning wood from sustainable sources (how do you tell?) is better than gas or coal but only based on CO2 emissions. Both gas and coal extraction produce vast amounts of GHG by fugitive emissions of methane which has nothing to do with how or where they are burnt.

Another issue is the comparison of aircon and resistive heating efficiency. You say aircon is the most efficient but then say resistive heaters are 100%. There would be plenty of readers scratching their heads because they do not know that, gauged by the heating produced compared to power consumed, aircon is more than 100% efficient - around 250%.

This gem takes the prize for confusing:

A single unflued gas heater can create up to 25 megajoules per hour of energy, which is equivalent to more than 6kW of electric heating– the same as you’d get from three 2kW electric heaters. So they’ll heat up a room faster than an electric heater, which means using less energy.

Can somebody tell me why expending 6kW from burning gas heats up the room faster than the same energy from resistive heaters? OK what about the reason that faster heating uses less energy when you have just said the energy used is the same in both cases? Both seem at odds with the laws of thermodynamics; as does creating energy - but let the last pass as journalese. And while I am on a roll MJ/h and kW are both measures of power not energy.

Having said resistive heaters are 100% you go on to say column heaters use the least electricity. Well that is because they produce the least heat. For the heat they produce they are no different to the maligned fan heater. So are we comparing efficiency here or power consumed?

I may seem to be getting a bit technical but why can’t articles about complex subjects be simplified for general consumption and not say things that are confusing or silly?

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Correct. And just to confuse things, a MegaJoule is a unit of energy, as is a KiloWattHour. Not power. They are related. One Watt (power) is one Joule (energy) over one second. Although when it comes to electrical energy and power, a Watt is defined in terms of current flow through a resistance normally.

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