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Heat pumps can't take the cold? Nordics debunk the myth
(techxplore.com)
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this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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It depends on the model (and the price), I'm in Québec where we have -30°C (-22F) about every winter, my heatpump is mid-range, and works fine until -20C (-4F) so 95% of the time. It is set to 23C (73F) and it's between 21-23 everywhere in the house. The electric baseboard are set to 21C (70F) as backup.
So yeah, heat pumps can works great in winter, no problem.
Also as written in the article, with defrosting and variable speed compressors, it is very efficient. Mine is Energy Star compliant, and act as air conditionner in summer.
Makes sense to me that they could theoretically work all the way down to near 0 kelvin, just depends on their efficiency. Just so long as there is heat to be had…
Also, not sure energy star really means much.
They theoretically could, but the coefficient of performance would go below 1 long before you get close to zero Kelvin. That means it would cost more energy to pump the heat than is pumped, so you'd be better off using an electric heater.
Not to mention, you’d need a material to pump. R-32 which I believe is the most common at the moment, has a freezing temp of -132, meaning it would be useless at temps near 1K.
Ah yes... that's a very good point. I'm not about to learn a bunch of chemistry and physics and stuff.... but I'd be interested in reading about this theoretical optimization if electricity was free, there was no gravity, friction was 0, etc etc etc.