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Oxford study proves heat pumps triumph over fossil fuels in the cold (www.nationalobserver.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Oxford study proves heat pumps triumph over fossil fuels in the cold::Published Monday in the scientific journal Joule, the research found that heat pumps are two to three times more efficient than their oil and gas counterparts, specifically in temperatures ranging from 10 C to -20 C.

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[–] 44 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Heat pumps are A/C in reverse. It makes total sense instead of using fire to heat air.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    brb putting in my window unit from the outside

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You think you are being a smartass but that's exactly what heat pumps do. The only functionality difference between an AC unit and a heat pump is a reversing valve.

    But without a reversing valve you could put your AC unit in backwards and heat your house in the winter.

    The whole premise of an AC unit is to take the heat from inside the house and put it outside, leaving you with cooler air inside.

    So in the winter a heat pump simply reverses the flow of the freon and moves the heat from outside to inside. Yes. You are "cooling the whole neighborhood" when you run a heat pump.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I wish it was standard to be able to do both. My heat pump is unreal efficient and cheap and great but I'd love a cool breeze every now and then.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It definitely can. If yours can't then it's likely just the thermostat wired wrong.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    It's underfloor heating, the units that do both are more expensive so there must be something different.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Ah yeah that's a different story then. However I've never heard of in-floor cooling before. I wonder how effective it would be since heat rises? I think you'd just have a cool floor and hot muggy air. Also the floor would condense water constantly so your floor would be slippery and if you have carpet it would be wet / damp constantly.

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