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Mike Hartigan

In article ,
says...
Actually, the illumination is, indeed, free. 500 watts of energy
consumed results in 500 watts of heat, regardless of what else the
energy is doing. If you have a refrigerator that consumes 500 watts
of electricity and it runs continuously, it's producing exactly the
same amount of heat as five 100 watt light bulbs. And it chills your
beer for free. In fact, if you heat your home with electricity, it
doesn't cost a dime to run all your appliances and keep all your
lights on all day and all night long (assuming, of course, that you
do it during the heating season and you're not overheating your
house).

A minor correction to my diatribe, above: I meant to say that it
doesn't cost a dime EXTRA to do all the other stuff. You're still
heating your home with electricity. You're just using things other
than the furnace to do it.