I’ll note that this post is paywalled, but the key facts are outside the paywall.

  • @schroedingershat
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    21 year ago

    It’s a really bad piece of jargon, but is an internally consistent definition. They mean (heat entering building)/(work consumed) > 1

    Which is a way if defining efficiency (energy out / energy in), just a really awful and misleading one.

    In terms of % of carnot efficiency, the best heat pumps are about where stationary heat engines generally are, 40% or so.

    • @chuckleslord
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      21 year ago

      Thank you! It seems to me to be like saying “LEDs are more than 100% efficient because we’re applying the same metric of efficiency that we would for incandescent bulbs”. They’re two different methods of generating heat, why would you use the efficiency rule from one to judge the other?