Can a heat pump be more efficient than just heating or cooling?
Image: Original: Unknown Source: Institute of Human Thermodynamics and IoHT Publishing Ltd., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Coefficient of performance
Can a heat pump be more efficient than just heating or cooling?
Imagine you're trying to keep your house warm in winter without cranking up the heater all day. You want to save energy and reduce bills.
A heat pump can move heat from outside to inside your house, using less energy than generating heat directly. This efficiency is captured by the COP formula.
Example
If the heat pump moves 3 units of heat into your house using 1 unit of work, its COP is 3.
Remember this
The COP formula shows how much heat a heat pump moves compared to the energy it uses.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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