[Tagging] Feature Proposal - RFC - temperature

[John F. Eldredge]

On February 11, 2015 3:59:45 PM CST, Warin <61sundowner at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/02/2015 3:45 AM, Bryce Nesbitt wrote:
> Most air conditioners here have the ability to both heat and cool at 
> least here and in the UK.

Technically, a unit that can either cool a building, or heat it by cooling outdoor air and transferring heat to indoor air, is a heat pump rather than an air conditioner. Heat pumps are significantly more expensive up-front than air conditioners, due to their greater mechanical complexity, and are only cost-effective as a heating method as long as the temperature to which the outdoor air is chilled is above freezing. As the temperature of the outdoor condenser approaches freezing, the heat pump changes over to using a resistive heating element to heat the indoor air, requiring more electrical power. This means that, in some climates, it is more cost-effective to use a heat source such as an oil-burning or gas-burning furnace as the winter heat source.

-- 
John F. Eldredge -- john at jfeldredge.com
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.