Wrt cold snaps being a big problem, it seems like we could just massively insulate dwelling and improve our energy use auditing, if it became necessary? Vacuum insulation panels are a bit pricey, but they’re crazy insulative for the thickness. If we’re willing to deal with thicker walls, there are a variety of other options that are downright cheap (shredded newspaper, for example).

We’ve been designing around super cheap on-demand energy for a while now, but we did manage before that.