3 ms·
About the gas furnaces, their efficiency exceeds 100% because of water vapour condensation. It happens both in the furnace and in the plastic exhaust pipe that
by j-a-a-p 3y ago
About the gas furnaces, their efficiency exceeds 100% because of water vapour condensation. It happens both in the furnace and in the plastic exhaust pipe that exchanges heat with the outside air inflow. Gas comes in, liquid goes out and your law of thermodynamics is preserved. AFAIK the majority of housing is using this.
It would surprise me if gas turbines exceed 40% on average, and then the electricity still needs to be distributed. New turbines, probably particularly when using propane could do much better indeed.
My heat pumps all advertise a SCOP of around 5 for heating, and I guess the domestic hot water it would be 2.5 (don't have that, using solar for that myself). And there is a lot the installers can and will screw up, just read some user forums on this. And which consumer actually checks the real COP? So large numbers of heat pumps will perform far from optimal without somebody noticing. The 'screw up surface' of gas furnaces is much smaller. For example, ground heat sources rarely get replenished in summer (not mandatory for residential in my country).