As long as you are using fossil fuels to generate electricity using electric space heaters is counterproductive because you actually produce significantly more CO2 than just burning the gas directly (this applies to France as well btw). The space heater comment also let's me to believe that you never lived in a country that requires proper heating.
Now heatpumps are a different issue, however they require to upgrade insulation as well.
The efficiency of electricity production has no influence on the amount of work it takes to convert heating from gas to electric.
Why would you want to use fossil fuels to generate electricity anyway nowadays?
I've spent several months above the polar circle and lived in Germany and Minnesota where it gets much colder than in France. Heating a 2 bedroom mountain cabin in winter in Sweden in -36C works fine with 3x2kW electric heaters. It's basic physics, there isn't any advantage to using gas given the same power ends up being transferred to the inside of the building as heat energy.
> The efficiency of electricity production has no influence on the amount of work it takes to convert heating from gas to electric.
Sure it does, it directly effects prices. Also the efficiency affects how much CO2 you generate, you don't win anything if the absolute amount of CO2 goes up.
> Why would you want to use fossil fuels to generate electricity anyway nowadays?
Because the system has a big inertia? AFAIK there are no western countries who generate 100% of their electricity fossil free, Norway and New Zealand come quite close but are not 100%. For most countries its still around 30% at least which is fossil.
> I've spent several months above the polar circle and lived in Germany and Minnesota where it gets much colder than in France. Heating a 2 bedroom mountain cabin in winter in Sweden in -36C works fine with 3x2kW electric heaters. It's basic physics, there isn't any advantage to using gas given the same power ends up being transferred to the inside of the building as heat energy.
OK then do the exercise, the price for electricity is ~0.28 kWh, how much would it cost to heat that cabin for the year (and we haven't heated water yet).
For people who think electric heating is the solution, now replace it with 0.98 euro/kWh, which my current rate in the Netherlands since November. Though heating with gas is equally bad at 3.3 euro per me. I'm paying roughly 600 euro a month just to heat our home to 17 deg C
That's because your country chose to make themselves completely reliant on a crazy mass murderer 3 countries over for its electricity production. But hey, it was cheaper (but not that much) than building solar and wind for a few decades!
Now heatpumps are a different issue, however they require to upgrade insulation as well.