Electric boilers are currently being installed all over Europe to harness off-peak, cost-effective electricity, which is then provided to customers as hot water through district heating pipelines at a higher rate.
In Finland, many houses are equipped with solar cells, generating surplus electricity, especially when the house is vacant and while plug-in cars charge at workplace parking lots.
As an illustrative example, we might sell our excess solar-generated electricity to the city’s energy company at the Nordpool spot price of 1 cent per kilowatt-hour, and they, in turn, supply us with heat at 10 cents per kilowatt-hour in the spring and fall when the sun still shines during the day, requiring us to heat our homes during the night.