"It's a sweltering summer afternoon. You step indoors, switch on the air conditioner, and within minutes the air begins to cool. What's happening behind that familiar hum is not the creation of cold, but the movement of heat. In summer, heat is absorbed from indoor air and released outside via a refrigerant loop. But in winter most AC systems can run in reverse, extracting heat from the outdoor air and distributing it indoors to warm the space."
"Air conditioners heat faster and cheaper than gas Heat pumps and AC systems primarily use environmental heat from the surrounding area. This makes heating with them particularly efficient and inexpensive. And when powered by low-carbon electricity, they're also significantly more climate-friendly than fossil-fuel heating. Most devices draw heat from outside air. However, warm exhaust from buildings, factories and data centers, as well as heat from rivers, groundwater, wastewater and soil, can also be harnessed."
Air conditioners and heat pumps transfer heat rather than creating cold, absorbing heat from indoor air in summer and releasing it outside via a refrigerant loop. Many systems can reverse operation in winter to extract heat from outdoor air and deliver it indoors. Heat pumps primarily use environmental heat from air, exhaust streams, rivers, groundwater, wastewater and soil. Improved technology has increased efficiency so modern systems in temperate climates can produce over five kilowatt-hours of heat per kilowatt-hour of electricity annually. Such performance makes heat pumps roughly a third cheaper to run than gas heating and reduces carbon emissions when powered by low-carbon electricity.
Read at www.dw.com
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