You mean air conditioning?
this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
2 points (100.0% liked)
Explain Like I'm Five
14124 readers
133 users here now
Simplifying Complexity, One Answer at a Time!
Rules
- Be respectful and inclusive.
- No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
- Engage in constructive discussions.
- Share relevant content.
- Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
- Use appropriate language and tone.
- Report violations.
- Foster a continuous learning environment.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Or a refrigerator. Or freezer. Or any heat pump.
The new water heater ones baffle me, you're heating the water and cooling the garage?
I dunno, is a heat pump the same thing as air conditioning ? And if it is, why is one seemingly good for the environment and the other isn't ?
it is, (although the design is slightly different, you couldn't just run the motor on an AC backwards).
Heat pumps are better for the environment because it's (usually) more energy efficient to extract existing heat than create it. Heat-pumps get more heat per unit energy spent than resistive heat (like electric radiators) because they're not creating the heat, they're just moving it.
Natural gas still kind of wins out, but that has the issue of constantly needing more natural gas.
The most environmentally friendly play would be, if you were like on a space station or something: Imeaditley stop producing more natrual gas, use up whatevers left in reserves, then install heat pumps. But of course that's not how things work so we're transitioning now.
edit: re: AC not being good for the environment. AC isn't the problem, just the power is. So it's just seen as a luxury as opposed to necessity, although obviously that's starting to change.
Small correction, no motor runs backward. You can't reverse the flow through a compressor, so heat pumps have a reversing valve that slides back and forth to reverse the flow of refrigerant in the system.
Oh fair point. My dumb-ass sitting here going what is he talking about? A motor can run backwards, most pumps and compressors can't, or at least wont be effective if they do. Unless their something like a peristaltic.
A heatpump is a device that moves heat from one place to other.
It subtracts heat in one side (cools that side) and dumps it in the other (heats that other side).
We have already those devices available to install at home, and are commonly known as Air Conditioning.
The inside unit grabs the heat (cools the room) and the outside unit dumps the heat.
Those same devices are now reversible, so they are able to grab heat from the outside unit, and dump it in the room (heats the room).
I can't help but to hear this in his voice, Technology Connections.
And now you can listen to some cool smooth jazz and bloopers while reading the closed caption easter egg instead of watching the credits