for areas that experience winter, this is a decisive issue.
If you live in a passivhause-style home, air source heat pumps ("minisplits" for our US readers) may work, and you might be able (at least in the southwest of the USA, with high insolation during winter) to get away with local battery storage to cover your heating needs with PV.
But if you don't, PV-driven heating during the winter, even with the very high COP's of air source heat pumps, is not realistic without much larger battery systems than you could reasonably have on site.
Covering non-heating domestic electricity costs with PV these days is relatively easy, and we should do it as much as possible. Covering the heating part for places with winter climates (especially in areas with low insolation) is much, much harder and really requires effective grid infrastructure.
for areas that experience winter, this is a decisive issue.
If you live in a passivhause-style home, air source heat pumps ("minisplits" for our US readers) may work, and you might be able (at least in the southwest of the USA, with high insolation during winter) to get away with local battery storage to cover your heating needs with PV.
But if you don't, PV-driven heating during the winter, even with the very high COP's of air source heat pumps, is not realistic without much larger battery systems than you could reasonably have on site.
Covering non-heating domestic electricity costs with PV these days is relatively easy, and we should do it as much as possible. Covering the heating part for places with winter climates (especially in areas with low insolation) is much, much harder and really requires effective grid infrastructure.