In volcanic areas people may cook in natural boiling pools. Methods have been devised to use the Sun's heat, concentrated in various ways. Note that a small but increasing amount of heating comes from well-designed buildings with solar collectors, or simple collectors facing the Sun on ordinary roofs, linked in to conventional heating circuits and heat pumps. Cooling air conditioning. We need to be able to measure the different kinds of energy - for reasons both of convenience and practicality.
Joules are direct measurements of energy as are calories.
This is a pretty small amount of heat which is why you usually see heat measurements in kilojoules. A 100-watt light bulb uses 100 joules every second. Many appliances like electric motors have their power needs stamped on an identity plate. Small motors like those in electric drills or mixers are usually no more than a few hundred watts. On closer investigation, you would notice that the total heat output is almost three times the electrical output.