Sales are growing so quickly that some installers wonder whether heat pumps could even wipe out the demand for new air conditioners in a few years and put a significant dent in the number of natural gas furnaces.

      • CanadianCorhen@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        A heatpump is an AC, definitionally. There is no major difference for a 9000 BTU heat pump and a 9000 BTU AC in terms of capability to cool. They both work through using gas to move heat from the inside to the outside of the building.

        A heat pump can just run in reverse, and move heat form outside the building inside.

        A mini-split is a version of a heat pump where it has its own head and its own radiator, that are split. this is opposed to central AC.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Most central AC area also split systems. The evaporator is indoors and the compressor/condenser unit sits outside, and are connected by pipes.

          The only difference is that they are ducted to the entire house, where a mini-split generally only cools a single room.

          And yo can get central type units that have a reversing valve which allows them to cool the house in the summer and heat it in the winter. Though those have historically been a lot harder to find. There are more coming on the market in the last few years.

      • Dearche@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        Wait, that doesn’t make sense to me. Are you talking about air heat pumps, or geo heat pumps here? The air ones are literally just ACs in a different shape, and the latter is basically an AC where the outside bit goes underground.

        The principals are the same, and they even use the same terminology. I know other countries dont’ differentiate in the slightest and just call them all the same thing.

      • OminousOrange@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        There are ones with broader operating ranges. I have a Carrier infinity that cools just fine in the Saskatchewan heat and heats down to -15. I’ve seen some models that can operate to -25 or 30.

        And yes, AC is a one-direction heat pump. The heat pumps that provide heat are an AC that can reverse the refrigeration loop and force heat into a space rather than out of a space.

      • Daryl Chymko@fosstodon.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        @Luci @wildbus8979 this may have been true a decade ago but now the cold-climate versions can operate at 100% down to -20C. Ours was operational at -29C and running at about 80% output (even though according to the specs thermal shutoff is -28)