• Takatakatakatakatak@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 months ago

    In this context is a “heat pump” the same thing as an inverter air conditioner?

    A split system.

    That’s what most of Australia uses and looks like the pic but Ive never heard them called a heat pump.

    • schnokobaer@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      A split system AC is a heat pump in any context. So is a refrigerator. They’re all the same technology that move energy via a refrigerant’s latent heat by compressing it into a warm part and letting it expand into a cold part.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      10 months ago

      Yeah, for some reason we renamed them to heat pump.

      I suppose they can also be used to slowly heat water as well as the air, which is the main difference.

      • steltek@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I like “heat pump”. It’s a very nice ELI5 name. It’s a pump for heat. A water pump takes water and forces it to where it wouldn’t go naturally. A heat pump does the same.

    • Amju Wolf@pawb.social
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      10 months ago

      For larger homes with central heating and radiators inverter air conditioners aren’t really a great solution - they are expensive (especially when you don’t have/need an air conditioner in the first place), unsightly and work for more or less just one room. A heat pump is a generic term for a multitude of things, but as a replacement for central heating you’d most likely have just one outdoor unit that spews cold air and inside you’d have a large heat exchanger where you warm up the water for your central heating (and possibly warm water in general for showering and the like).

      It’s pretty amazing.