John Stumbles wrote:
On Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:36:11 -0700, wrote:

However, electrically powered ground/air source heat pumps might
become much more attractive, as they already have a considerable
efficiency advantage over direct heating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSHP.

The initial costs are considerable though, and your site must be
suitable.

I think the running costs are similar:

Similar to what? certainly not to straight electrical heating!


the possible advantage of heat
pumps nationally/strategically is that the electricity they use can in
principle be sourced from non-fossil sources (if such are available)
whereas GCH is of course restricted to fossil-fuel (unless one acquires
renewable source of methane or similar).


Well, quite, although all 'renewable' energy (as opposed to nuclear) is
vastly more expensive (apart from hydro) than fuel burning.