Air conditioners are Heatpumps without a valve to reverse the direction of cooling/heating. If you flip an air conditioner around, it will produce heat at about 3 to 4x greater efficiency compared to an electric resistance heater.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Most modern ACs have heating available as a function, so no need to flip it.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 months ago

Oddly, I've never seen a reversible window AC in my area. Checking my local stores, they're definitely a bit more expensive than the non-heating models (cheapest I could find was $489), which might explain it.

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 1 points 3 months ago

Yep, reverse cycle a/c.

[–] MSugarhill@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 months ago

what I would need to know now is how the efficacy is compared to heating water for the heaters with natural gas...