[Greenbuilding] between a rock and a shoulder season

[Reuben Deumling]

Up here in the Pacific Northwest we have a dilemma. The sun only shines
between mid-May and mid-October (when it comes to yielding any useful water
heating photons). The heating season, in my experience, is from November -
April, but it tapers off a bunch at both ends, especially once one
insulated the heck out of a place. This leaves two shoulder seasons during
which little sun and little wood heating are going on that could be
directed into a water storage tank.

So my question: What would you recommend as a backup (third) water heating
fuel?
*Natural gas* has been my default, but the only thing I really like about
it is that it is not electricity. Fracking, fugitive methane emissions,
peak gas, climate change, etc. It's all awful.

I once thought I'd try to set up a DWH system that used *biogas*/cow farts,
but when I learned that CH4 doesn't readily compress I put my LPG tanks
back on Craigslist.

To us *electricity *to heat anything, to me, is bordering on the
sacrilegious. I am well aware of the simplicity and technical ease of
setting up an electric backup DWH system, but energetically I have a really
hard time using our highest quality energy to do something as simple as
make H2O molecules hot.

But I'm open to any arguments for the above or something I've not thought
of.

Thanks very much.
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