Learning from the past for the future?

Direct electric heating systems from the past used dirty coal-fired electricity at night to supply cheap night storage heat for the day. The power generation, which was harmful in the process, was now located in the surrounding area of the power plant rather than within the cities. Therefore, local residents were happy about the reduced dust and odor pollution.

So is it justifiable to call direct electric heating polluting and inefficient even today?

Regardless of its origin, the electricity for electric heating at that time, was only converted 1:1 into heat in the customer's facility, without the addition of environmental energy on site. This fact, as well as the increasing share of renewable energy in the public grid, represents the difference today compared to then! Today, the share of renewable energy in the public grid is much higher than in the decades before: in Austria at 70 % for years, in Germany in 2019 also at over 40 %.

Already half a decade ago, experts recognized the revival of electric heating: "Power-to-heat is the future in the heating market" (source:

Fraunhofer Institut

). Today, however, it is no longer cheap night-time electricity that makes electric heating possible, it is the use of photovoltaic electricity, which is generated cheaply by the sun. Due to the linearly power control, hot water boilers and component masses are so-called "day storage".

How exactly this can work and what advantage my-PV can offer you here?

Read more about heating with electricity.