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In the past with harmful refrigerants and lack of renewable energy AC simply was not justifiable in most of Europe. Progress on both fronts plus global warming
by Tarq0n 3mo ago
In the past with harmful refrigerants and lack of renewable energy AC simply was not justifiable in most of Europe. Progress on both fronts plus global warming is changing that only recently.
- bee_rider 3mo agoOn the bright side they’ve probably waited long enough to roll out heat pumps instead of window ACs, right?
- quantummagic 3mo agoAs far as I know, a heat pump and an AC unit are essentially identical. Although some heat pumps can be reversed, and act as heaters in the winter. But one isn't more efficient than the other, they employ the exact same physical refrigeration cycle.
- coryrc 3mo agoI think GP's point is that winter heating can shift to nuclear- and wind-powered instead of mostly burning fossil fuels.
- bee_rider 3mo agoOh, I had them filed in by brain under “more efficient temperature control” but it looks like they don’t have an advantage over ACs when cooling. (Just over typical heaters, when heating). Oops.
- wil421 3mo agoThat’s true however moving heat in the winter is much better than burning things. Gas furnaces are 80%-98% efficient, heat pumps are 300-400%.
- nikonyrh 2mo agoDoes that take into account the efficiency of transforming the gas to electricity first? Ah, well we have other power sources as well. But if you were to use gas, it doesn't seem to make much difference (if the gas power plant doesn't utilize the extra heat for district heating etc.).