• Jojo, Lady of the West@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    6 months ago

    A heat pump can heat a home by more than the energy in the electricity it uses. It’s more than 100% efficient at “converting electricity into heat in your home”. It does that by not actually covering electricity but by moving heat, and it is less than 100% efficient at converting electricity into motion, and introduces some waste heat

    • hperrin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      The efficiency of a machine isn’t measured at how effective its job is, but how efficiently it does that job. If it moved heat without producing any waste heat, it would be 100% efficient. If it produces any waste heat at all it’s not 100% efficient. No machine can ever be more than 100% efficient. That would violate the laws of thermodynamics.