Air Con Heating is cheap!

Maybe everyone knows this already, but I have seen several convection style heaters in the Buy & Sell sections, so maybe not everyone knows, and I just discovered it myself!

If you were to use a typical electric fan heater, or a convection electric heater, you would generally have to put 1kW of power in, to get 1kW out. Its expensive.

Well I just discovered that if you have a proper Air Con unit, they are much more efficient for heating a house. Apparently, due ot the heat pump, they typically provide 2.5 times as much heating power as they use in electricity.

My particular AC units use up to 990W of electric, but put out 2500W of heating power.

I looked at charts and comparisons, and its a very cheap way to heat a home in comparison to gas, wood fired stoves etc. Unless you have a source of particularly cheap/free wood of course.

Just thought it worth mentioning incase some have only been using their AC to cool their houses in the summer.

The only problem is air con has to be kept running as the heat it provides is not retained in the house

..and it doesn't give you the nice cosy feeling of looking at a roaring fire in the lounge.

sometimes you just need the chill taken out , air conditioner will do it

jpeg wrote:The only problem is air con has to be kept running as the heat it provides is not retained in the house

Surely this would also apply to all heating and is more about the insulation within the building not the air con'.

Woodburner keeps on putting heat out even when fire goes out aircon does not

Too true JPEG what not much good if you don’t have a wood burning fire! I agree about the aircon but I turn ours on as soon as the sun goes down. I warm the place before it gets cold and on occasion can be impossible to warm without a couple of heaters.
Just remember one thing, if you were in the U.K. you’d be heating the house on and off all day long. 900 watts isn’t even a kilowatt so it’s the cheapest way to heat a room. Don’t be scared to use it.

jpeg wrote:The only problem is air con has to be kept running as the heat it provides is not retained in the house

That's not peculiar to air con but applies to every form of 'instant' or' on/off' heating.

The efficiency of an air con for heating is determined by both the outside temperature and the desired temperature inside, the greater the differential between the two the lower the efficiency.

DO2ES wrote:Maybe everyone knows this already, but I have seen several convection style heaters in the Buy & Sell sections, so maybe not everyone knows, and I just discovered it myself!

If you were to use a typical electric fan heater, or a convection electric heater, you would generally have to put 1kW of power in, to get 1kW out. Its expensive.

Well I just discovered that if you have a proper Air Con unit, they are much more efficient for heating a house. Apparently, due ot the heat pump, they typically provide 2.5 times as much heating power as they use in electricity.

My particular AC units use up to 990W of electric, but put out 2500W of heating power.

I looked at charts and comparisons, and its a very cheap way to heat a home in comparison to gas, wood fired stoves etc. Unless you have a source of particularly cheap/free wood of course.

Just thought it worth mentioning incase some have only been using their AC to cool their houses in the summer.

Have to agree, it's a very efficient and effective use of energy.

We're lucky in Spain as temperatures rarely drop below low teens and most homes just need the chill taken out them in early mornings and into the late evenings. As such an 18-21 degrees setting is perfect, especially on Eco- mode.

Paul 58 strange as it might seem warm air heating needs to be 2 degs hotter than radiant heat and as soon as it’s off it cools quicker, but as you say if we had proper insulation here we’d need very little heat which would also mean less air con in summer, and why is there no building regs to require at minimum solar hot water