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
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      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
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        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
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      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
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      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
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      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)