2 ms·

I'm all for passive and natural cooling, but that involves new buildings. Central AC is still a lot more efficient than "every apartment gets individual AC", w

• throw0101a 7y ago
  Ductless mini-split heat pumps would work well and are quite efficient. Each apartment can get a separately metered unit, with one compressor serving multiple indoor air units. The indoor units can be in different rooms, each set to different temperatures, with different schedules (why cool the bedroom during the day?). Typical units can heat the home to >20C even if the outside temperature outside is 5C, and there are even units that can extract heat from outside when it is -20C (originally designed for northern Japan).
  • scrollaway 7y ago
    Am I missing something or does this not help with air conditioning? Heating in europe is pretty high quality overall; the problem is with cooling.
    • throw0101a 7y ago
      Heat pumps transfer heat. In the summer they take heat from inside a building, and dump it outside. In the winter, they extract heat from the outside air and send it inside. The same unit does both heating and cooling. You also do not need to renovate a home as much to install them. Traditionally air ducts are often used for a lot of HVAC, and they can sometimes be a hassle to retrofit into older buildings. Heat pumps using ~1-2cm pipes between the external compressor and internal 'heads' to move the heat, so it's a lot easier to run that pipe (like plumbing) than a much larger air duct.