3 ms·
Heat pumps are way more efficient than just resistive heating.
by monochromatic 9y ago
Heat pumps are way more efficient than just resistive heating.
- mhb 9y agoHow is that possible?
- taejo 9y agoThey steal heat from outside. It takes less energy to move heat from a cold place to a warm place, than to create warmth "from scratch".
- msl 9y agoA heat pump extracts thermal energy from, say, air. Electricity is not converted into heat, but used to create a temperature difference (one part of the system gets colder, the other gets hotter). This is vastly more efficient than using resistive heating elements. Such a system can appear to be more than 100% (up to around 400% [1]) efficient, if you look at the electricity going in, and the heat coming out. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump
- tigershark 9y agoI don't think they are more efficient in Norway harsh winters..
- monochromatic 9y agoThat's actually a reasonable point, and it may be true. There's got to some temperature delta makes a heat pump a losing proposition, but I'm not sure how big that threshold is.
- johnward 9y agoI accidentally replaced one of my heat pumps with an A/C only unit. So now I have to run the emergency heat strip all winter. I haven't seen any real increase in my power usage. The heat strip was running most of the time anyway because of low temps.
- fulafel 9y agoRecent winter pumps work pretty well down to -20C, and don't get any worse than resistive heating after that. In the north of Norway, Tromso, the lowest monthly average temperature is -6C for January. Coastal Norway is surprisingly warm due to the ocean and Gulf stream.