Heat Pumps: the Future of Home Heating

[@TechnologyConnections]

Hello! Here's a comment with some extra info on efficiency and the metering devices used in heat pumps. First: my wording on the efficiency drop in the cold was sloppy, and it sounds like I'm suggesting the need for defrosting is the only reason it loses efficiency. It is _a_ reason, but not the biggest one - that's simply that as the outdoor temperature gets colder, it's harder for the refrigerant to absorb heat because the temperature difference between it and the air gets smaller. In fact, in the clip when it was -10°, it wasn't building much frost at all because it was very dry. But that was so cold that the refrigerant could barely capture any energy, which is why its output was tepid. And to be clear, its rating down to 5° doesn't mean it operates at full efficiency at that temperature. That's just the lowest temperature that it can sustain its rated heating output. Re: metering devices. I still somewhat suspect that the mini-split has a capillary tube and largely because of its cost. It was surprisingly inexpensive (this unit was about $1000, but the smallest units from this same manufacture only cost $750 and are fully capable heat pumps). If you use a thermal expansion valve or similar, you need one for each direction which adds to the system's complexity somewhat. I'd still argue that it hardly does - it is, after all, one or two small components of a large system. But simply reversing the refrigerant flow doesn't work on its own in systems that use these more complex metering devices. They'd need some additional piping and valve work (some such valves were visible in the demo rig) to accommodate two metering devices for each direction of flow.

[@inactiveytchannel]

:)

[@Thomas_Nookington]

second one to reply! :)

[@johnxina2465]

Amazing video I was really anticipating this one, AND A CONNEXTRAS EPILOG, lovely

[@zyansheep]

Heaters = inefficient

[@IMJustSomeGuy100]

Most have EEV’s or electronic expansion valves. Only one valve is required in the outdoor unit this is why the small line needs to be insulated. As in cooling mode the small line is now a low pressure liquid line.

[@mrflamewars]

If it's not absolute zero there's some energy. Let's steal it!

[@inactiveytchannel]

If efficiency is not 100%, make it

[@nothing-mm8ui]

e

[@tirex3673]

even if it is a completely empty vacuum there is still some energy

[@Jaymac720]

@@inactiveytchannel the second law of thermodynamics states that mechanical devices cannot be 100% efficient

[@GetsugaTensho85]

NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!

[@Frost_smitten]

HVAC tech from the EU here, I'm probably late to the party on this but just wanted to add, most mini splits with variable frequency compressors don't use capillary tubes or TXVs but electronic expansion valves for even more adjustability and efficiency and they're usually in the outdoor unit and not the indoor one which is why insulation of the copper piping from outside to inside is so important as well. Anyway, love your content, keep doing what you're doing!

[@LevelNoneMusic]

I remember subscribing when you were at around 150k subs, and I prayed that WHEN you hit 1 million, the videos would stay the same, and they have. This is honestly one of the best channels ever. You've taught me a lot more than anyone else could, and about things that are actually interesting. Thank you for staying true to edutainment. I honestly think you would make an amazing teacher.

[@Kyle4OH8]

I just noticed he hit over 1 milli too I've been watching this channel for a few years now still the same great content

[@johnsmith1474]

You should realize how pitiful your compliment is, everything every stated here is covered in JR HS (or before by kids who bother to show some scientific curiosity in a library).

[@Eric2300jeep]

@@johnsmith1474 And you should realize how much none of us care about your bitter, elitist attitude 😏

[@csl110]

@@Eric2300jeep He's emotionally unintelligent and complaining about a "lack of scientific curiosity". Notice the irony? Not everyone has the same priorities.

[@SomePotato]

​@@johnsmith1474 Not at all. I came for the VCR and analog TV videos a couple of years ago. I'm not from the US, but I doubt you covered Betamax and PAL vs NTSC in high school over there. Edit: The only thing that changed over the years are the production values, and they only got better.

[@AshtonRob]

This video ended up inspiring me to go into an HVAC career, I just got hired as an apprentice :) thanks for the great content!

[@mrofnocnon]

It's a great career, just don't believe the heat pump b/s.

[@Dontexxr]

How ya liking it my man?

[@June-xm4ef]

@@mrofnocnonnever seen anyone get through a winter with just their heat pump. They always gotta kick the heat strips in their air handler on or they have a dual fuel gas furnace/ heat pump combo.

[@mrofnocnon]

@@June-xm4efAs a HVAC tech in Canada I've never seen it either. Will people realize?

[@coleBlap]

@@mrofnocnonexactly what I was gonna say lol

[@MegaBrokenstar]

This channel is basically the modern version of old school public access programming. I could totally imagine watching this on PBS at 11pm. Really cool that people still watch this type of content nowadays. Getting smarter via entertainment is an amazing use of free time.

[@RubyWalker-j1n]

most youtube videos made just for entertainment tend to piss me off these days, this is the kind of stuff I like to see LOL

[@Altoclarinets]

my mother: shut the door, we ain't paying to air condition the entire neighborhood alec: ... what if you were

[@Kyle4OH8]

Lmao

[@CorbyCave]

I was at a friends house once in the winter and her mother came in and yelled at us for having the door open. She said, 'I'm not heating up the whole neighboorhood, here!' I looked at her and replied, 'Not in that bathrobe, you aren't...' I didn't know someone could throw a wooden spoon that hard.

[@MrGothicruler666]

Hey Vsauce, Alec here

[@bencheevers6693]

Excellent comment, so much creativity and memery in KZbin comments sometimes, finding the best ones always makes me smile

[@josegljr]

@@MrGothicruler666 I totally read the og comments in vsauce fashion. Hearing the music in the background after I read it.

[@keri-lynnmiller7501]

One of the perks of being hearing impaired is that I always have subtitles turned on and therefore catch things like “Coefficient of smooth jazz” and it makes me feel happy. :)

[@myclamish]

I leave subtitles on just because I like to read as well as listen, and even after that I'm still not sure if I can identify what the coefficient of smooth jazz sounds like... XD edit: wait a sec, did you grow up in north west ontario?

[@keri-lynnmiller7501]

@@myclamish probably an imaginary number :) Nope! Why do you ask? Now I’m wondering if coefficient of smooth jazz is a particularly niche slang term in Northern Ontario.

[@myclamish]

@@keri-lynnmiller7501 yeah it's all about the coefficient of smooth jazz up there, it's the only sounds you can hear through the 18 layers of jacket to keep the cold out :p i only asked because i realized afterwards that i knew someone named keri-lynn that i grew up with who was also hearing impared...what are the chances.

[@mickwolf1077]

Haha, that comment made me feel happy

[@TheMsr47gaming]

@@myclamish most peaceful commet thread, I didn't know the coefficient of Smooth jazz was the answer to world peace.

[@WarrenGarabrandt]

We installed mini-split heat pumps on our house this year, and so far, we've noticed a significantly lower energy bill both during summer and now in winter. Your videos on heat pumps are a big reason why we did this. Thanks for making these videos. It's a small thing, but these videos are making the world a better place.

[@miguelperdomo786]

Mini splits suck when they break

[@ssmfernando]

@@miguelperdomo786Buy a Daikin or Mitsubishi, They never break.

[@davidwalsh5756]

We had a Daikin central coil installed in our forced hot air furnace in 2022, had it removed, no heat, mold in the return vents and the dealer did not have the skill sets to integrate the unit with our furnace. At 0C these units spend too much time in defrost, thereby robbing what little heat you got from it. We live in Eastern Canada, minus 20 regularly occurs, we kept our oil furnace.The technology sucks! It is a big "connection job" on the consumer. I'm 73 and this is the worst heating appliance we ever owned. The government that forced this on us will be gone after the next election along with the carbon tax on heating fuel it imposed on us.

[@WarrenGarabrandt]

@@davidwalsh5756 I would argue that the technology doesn't suck, but you were sold an inappropriate unit. If you live in a region that routinely sees temps below the efficient operating range of a particular heat pump, then you're going to have a bad time. Most places in the world don't routinely see -20. If I had bought a snow mobile thinking I was going to use it to commute to work regularly but I lived in Texas (I don't), I could easily say the snow mobile technology sucks because it won't work on bare pavement, but clearly the problem i would be having is a misapplication of the technology instead.

[@elikarpinski2460]

​@@davidwalsh5756 sounds like the dealers didn't know what they were doing. usually a system like that is referred to as "dual fuel" and the heat pump is only used for low loads, with the oil/gas furnace acting as emergency heat for when the temperature outside is too low for the heat pump to operate efficiently.

[@fifzeppelin]

2:09 I have an MS in chemical engineering. I know very well how the refrigeration cycle works. Yet I refuse to skip any explanation this channel does about it. It's just that good.

[@Crazy_Diamond_75]

I agree. He has a way of boiling down (heh) topics into their essentials, giving "Aha!" moments even to things you already know about.

[@PhreakinPhilip]

Same here, don’t think I was ever told it was because of the exploitation of latent heat. Glad you were taught adequately on thermo. My professors sucked so not much has stuck around. However, I still can visualize the cycle I drew and labeled sophomore year

[@polpotube]

why would you deny yourself the self validation of "yeah! right! I knew it!" ?

[@dlchector]

Don’t feel weird, I’m HVAC instructor and didn’t have any intentions of skipping this video. Nice to see the information from a different person. Will never skip one of his videos.

[@JamesQMurphy]

B.S. ChemE here… didn’t skip either.

[@jusjaisinghani8179]

I was happy to hear at the end of a 35 min video that this was just part 1, tells me how much I love your content.

[@nslouka90]

*CED flashbacks*

[@Gamecrazy721]

This video is the linchpin of the Technology Connections Cinematic Universe

[@Arbiter099]

Alec is a smarter character than we've had before, if we can get him working...

[@MrCheeze]

He really made the "Connections" part pull its weight in this episode!

[@Yootzkore]

Yep. It's all heat pumps. Always has been.

[@daydev2599]

Phase change was a surprise tool that will help us later.

[@TehVulpez]

If only we could connect Teletext and refrigeration cycles somehow.

[@per-olamjomark7452]

Fun to watch. I live in Sweden and close to 60 percent of all Swedish detached houses have a heat pump. The number of houses with heat pumps has also increased by almost 50 percent since 2009.

[@stripe330]

I live in Sweden too, i lived in an old apartment complex with direct heating. I literally bought a house in order to survive this winter, heat pumps truly are a blessing!

[@balokurd17]

Don't hesitate to switch on your heat pump at full power during the daytime. It's much easier for your device to 'pump' the calories when the sun is still shining. I live at high altitude and I stop my heatpump in the late afternoon when it's getting very cold and switch to wood during the night

[@Kangenpower7]

@@balokurd17, Yes I agree that running the heat pump during the day is much more heat per hour and a little more heat per KW of power used. I have a thermometer on my hot gas line going into my indoor unit. At 47F yesterday the temperature was 147, while this morning at 29F outside, the temperature was only 117F. So setting the temperature a little warmer during the day will save electricity overall.

[@jasonw98]

Stay tuned! Some "Nordic weather certified" multi split heat pumps are available soon in those countries.

[@wolw66]

I thought it was fun too. My sister lives in England and for them this is something new.... My previous heat pump was installed by my father, some 30 years ago. I replaced it a couple of years ago (same brand - Toshiba). I have a separate meter on it so I can see exactly how much electricity it draws. 272KWh is the maximum I've managed a month, and that would be during winter with cold spells below -20°C. Remember to buy a larger unit than you need, set max compressor power to 75%, set fan to "Max" (it will only go to full when needed).

[@thomasphillips885]

When your entire upload history is a prequel series for a single video.

[@lynnbabe678]

Haha! Everytime the links popped up, I thought, "I'm glad I already watched those, it has all led to this!"

[@kalibos]

Technology Connections Cinematic Universe

[@walnutsandbeastiality866]

I love pumps! The greatest feeling you can get in a gym or the most satisfying feeling you can get in the gym is *_the pump._* Let's say you train your biceps, blood is rushing in to your muscles and that's what we call *the pump.* Your muscles get a really tight feeling like your skin is going to explode any minute and its really tight and its like someone is blowing air into your muscle and it just blows up and it feels different, it feels fantastic. It's as satisfying to me as cumming is, you know, as in having sex with a woman and cumming. So can you believe how much I am in heaven? I'm like... _getting the feeling of cumming in the gym; I'm getting the feeling of _*_cumming at home;_*_ I'm getting the feeling of _*_cumming backstage;_*_ when I pump up, when I pose out in front of 5000 people I get the same feeling, so _*_I am cumming day and night._* It's terrific, right? So you know... I'm in heaven.

[@Brellic]

@@kalibos Yep, this is his Infinity War.

[@mesientogut6701]

Walnuts and Bestiality, is this the new and best copy pasta?

[@EtherImperial]

As someone who lives in the south, you have taught me something new about my A/C unit. I always thought that the heating mode was just turning on a space heater style system as it's commonly referred to here as the "heating coil". This also explains why it takes a minute to swap between heating and cooling.

[@raptor1jec]

As someone who's lived in the south, you weren't entirely wrong, actually. There is a resistive space heater type coil in there to supplement the heat pump. Our unit when I was a kid also had an "emergency heat" mode that only ran the heating coil. I assume that mode was there in case the compressor outside broke.

[@dogleg6669]

Heatpumps are common in warmer climates in the USA. I'm not sure about everywhere but in Texas atleast where I worked all heatpumps have an electric heating element installed and hooked to the "emergency" heat circuit of the thermostat. This is there to help compensate on really cold days below freezing when heatpumps start to loose efficiently.

[@wiredforstereo]

It may be what you think. Some are. My brother-in-law only had resistance heating in his former house in Missouri. Just the way it came when he bought it. However, usually they're used to supplement rather than be the main source of heat.

[@eggman9713]

@@raptor1jec Emergency heat mode was for either that scenario or one where older style heat pumps (like my old one before I replaced it last year) couldn't keep themselves defrosted during very cold conditions. Older units were quite dumb and ran on a combination of time and temperature and sometimes it was not sufficient (in my case, sustained 5F and below which is uncommon for this area). I had it happen a couple of times and my whole heat pump turned into a block of ice. Good thing electricity is cheap here.

[@rockyo59]

When I was about ten years old, 50 years ago, I asked my father why we couldn't put the outside part of the window AC inside by flipping it around to warm the house in the winter. I didn't know the way it worked at the time but I do now.

[@abd4620]

Ahead of your time sir

[@rockyo59]

@ I think you have that backwards I would have been kicked today not 50 years ago

[@kirkfranks1]

Because the outlet in inside the house :)

[@seanb3516]

I was working for LUSH manufacturing about 20 years back. They were trying to pour massage bars however the room was too hot. They wired up a window AC unit and placed it in the middle of the room. Being the son of a Mech Eng I was apoplectic trying to explain how this particular thermodynamic setup was worse than nothing. Seems funny now however at the time I was truly flailing. XD I was working with stupid people...a lot of them were real pretty so, six of one......

[@miked9000]

While it certainly would work, the amount of energy that it could pull from the outside(you never mentioned the outside temp), would make it colossally inefficient.

[@purpleblueunicorn]

Just installed my first heat pump this winter and it's amazing. I undersized it at 12k BTU for a 1500 ft2 main floor, it's not much more powerful than a toaster and it kept 22C indoors. It's a 14 hspf rated for -26C and averaged 1.4 COP when it was -26C including the defrost (15min per hour). I'm going to install another small one for my basement now and maybe one for the pool!

[@Harcix]

Where are you at? Whats the average winter temp outside ?

[@purpleblueunicorn]

@@Harcix In a city north of Montreal, QC. We average 14 days a year with temperatures under -4f. You can look up those stats. I modelled my calculations for worst case of 0F and will be using auxiliary heat or let the temperature drop when it gets worse.

[@purpleblueunicorn]

And update, it used 150kWh each month for the summer, meaning it cost me 9$ per month to operate and kept my house cool all summer for June, July, August. It's amazingly efficient. Still planning on installing one for my basement that I used to keep at 8C in winter.

[@sparrowbe4k802]

This channel must be in the top 0.1% of all channels out there. No constant repetition to pad the content, no half naked women for clickbait, no constant merching or sponsor messages. Just good solid research and no nonsense compilation of the facts. Excellent. On a par with Veritasium, Tom Scott & ElectroBOOM.

[@tangydiesel1886]

This, Project Farm, and Scott Manley are my go to channels.

[@SolarWebsite]

If you like these channels, you'll love Tech Ingredients, I'm sure.

[@max_kl]

I'll add Applied Science to the list

[@RubyWalker-j1n]

I love Posey's videos about LCD screens

[@xyzyxz6062]

for 20 years I've been asking sales reps to explain heat pumps, how they work, and how my cost would go down as brochures and signs say. No one could tell me. Next door got a huge carrier unit installed I asked installers, they couldn't be bothered or didn't know. Now I know. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!

[@xr6lad]

Heat pumps do not work under certain temperatures. Below 2 degrees the part outside; the heat exchanger slats start to ice over and the heat coming out drops to negligible. Be better to get a blanket. Believe me I live in a cold area and it’s better to light a fire.

[@tomdibble8983]

@@xr6lad As stated in the video, it depends on (1) which heat pump you get (more expensive models continue being efficient to -20ºF), (2) how old it is (they have come a LONG way in the past ten years, so if you have an existing old heat pump you are basing complaints on that probably doesn't apply to a new model), and (3)what you mean by "do not work". They don't just stop working, but slow down their heat moving abilities. I'd say definitely when the COP reaches 1.0 it is definitely no longer "working", and a more conservative estimate would look at when the COP dips below the ~2.5 that it takes to be more efficient than natural gas. Realistically, you should compare it to what your "backup/emergency heating" system is. But, again, if you spend enough up front on your heat pump, it doesn't even cross the 2.5 "natural gas" barrier until it's below -20ºF, so clearly most people in the US can get a *lot* of efficiency out of a heat pump system. For instance, a Mitsubishi H2i has a COP of 2.88 at 5ºF and 2.5 at -13ºF, and it isn't the most deluxe air-source heat pump out there! Of course, if "money is no limit" the next video in this series on ground-sourced heat pumps should be very helpful (there, the cost is in excavating to install the ground source tubing, rather than in fancier electronics and more efficient compressors to squeeze more heat out of sub-zero air). The point is, though, even if you "couldn't" run your heat pump for 10 super-chilly nights in a year, they all have a backup heat source to switch to. Isn't using a high-efficiency heat pump for 90 nights and gas for 10 a better idea than gas for all 100?

[@jerrymyahzcat]

@@xr6lad Not true. There are units rated to work down to at least -25°C. Also not everywhere in the world has gas available. I don’t unless I buy bottled gas.

[@michaelsheffield6411]

The installers may not know. They may have a job that takes 12 hours to do properly and would rather focus on that. If it snows a lot in your area, stick with the gas furnace. The wear and tear is too much on a system running 24hours, and the system he’s going to mention in the next video is so expensive to install that it’s not worth the little you save with greater efficiency

[@DrakeKillah]

@@xr6lad I won’t believe you. I live in Norway. We know a thing or too about cold. And heat pumps are the standard for new houses here, has been for the past decade atleast. Way back in the day, heat pumps were useless below those temps. But the tech has moved forward, and they now work just fine down to -25°C. Yes, they lose efficiency, but are still a viable option, depending on factors like house size, room layout, insulation, etc. If you live in a place that might see temps below what a heat pump can handle, like in Norway, it’s recommended to have supplemental heat sources for those periods, but that’s again down to different factors per user.

[@jdatlas4668]

Yay, Technology Connections finally made that heat pump video we’ve all been waiting for!

[@MrManniG]

Now well await the Teletext Video he promised Ages ago

[@Kyle4OH8]

I can finnaly sleep through the night

[@WhenDoesTheVideoActuallyStart]

Bi gang bi gang bi gang

[@Slushee]

Nice pfp

[@teh201d]

This is the culmination of the Technology Connections cinematic universe!

[@jenasaraus]

Thank you so much for this video, my HVAC technician and I had a disagreement today about if heat pumps can still work under 40F. He REFUSED to believe it’s possible. I was doubting my own sanity and I see now it is in fact possible!

[@soulfuzz368]

My neighbour has one and every time it gets that cold I see him out there trying to chip the ice away from the exhaust.

[@Meknownowuknow]

Well Jena. The HVAC man is Right. COP is the Reason that 40 or Below is the Bottom of Efficiency. COP Drops to Zero. Which Means, Heat becomes Impossible to Find or Generate. There's a Lot More to Learn about these Heat Pump Systems, But I can't Divulge the Real Truth on here. I End w/this however? Bottom Line is, NO Such thing Exists in Reality. Truth is It's Impossible to Find Heat Outside when Temps are Freezing!!! Sorry to say, this is an Industry Falsehood!! W/O a Proper Explanation you wouldn't understand.

[@midimusicforever]

Meanwhile in Sweden , I'm annoyed that my heat pump doesn't cool. It would have been sweet to have air conditioning in the summers!

[@LeoInterVir]

But it does cool... you're just cooling the outside air. In the US we use heat pumps to heat water for swimming pools. Their exhaust is cool air and when in air restricted areas the temperature gets even colder. Edit: They also have units that can work both ways and cool water. They are generally more expensive.

[@midimusicforever]

@@LeoInterVir Cool the inside air I mean of course.

[@eleftherios11]

You can get heat pumps for both heating and cooling

[@ajm5007]

@@LeoInterVir A friend of mine's VERY wealthy parent have a pool with heat pump that's integrated into the changing room's A/C. The heat is transferred from that room to the pool.

[@midimusicforever]

@@eleftherios11 I know, but mine doesn't.

[@maximum3611]

The day after this video comes out, my thermodynamics class starts going over second law and heat pumps. This got me ahead of the game. Amazing

[@code051]

my thermodynamics exam is tomorrow lol

[@JF32304]

Here's a shock. The laws can be broken.

[@Kraus-]

@@JF32304 Wait. That's illegal.

[@JF32304]

@@Kraus- nope. Just needs the right setup/config. I know it's possible.

[@nahometesfay1112]

@@JF32304 Not sure if you got the joke

[@spooda1237]

I live in Australia, so it doesn't get as cold in the winter here as it does in North America, but in the winter it can get from between 0-10 degrees C. And my old house was entirely heated by heat pumps. There was like 6 split systems in the house, they worked great

[@eddyo-fl9yh]

Just a random comment. Thank you for taking your time to add subtitles. It's amazing since I am hard of hearing.

[@Part_Time_Fox]

I'm actually in the middle of taking an HVAC class right now and the last few videos you've out out have been invaluable in helping me, thank you so much!

[@Worldsoldout]

In Switzerland common since the 1980ies. But with water-circuits to heat comfortable and more efficient. And on the top, a lot of them are taking the energy not from the fresh and cold air, they go 200 meters deep in the ground with another water-glycol-circuit. Even more efficient, but not cheap. And now since a few years, this deep in the ground going loops are double used: In winter to get +5°C Water for the heatpump, in summer to bring +16°C Water to cool (without A/C). But it needs good engineering.

[@MaksimIzer]

facepalm

[@Rudenbehr]

I wanna do HVAC haha, or be an electrician

[@KOTYAR0]

I learned air conditioning for 5 years, and I wish we had a troubleshooting rig like that

[@KOTYAR0]

@@Worldsoldout that's... overwhelming and makes me envious. Well, there are perks living in the 2nd world

[@johnmassey1016]

As an engineer, that was a brilliantly clear explanation on how refrigerators and heat pumps work. Well done, dude!!

[@electrictroy2010]

THE SPLIT HEAT PUMP doesn’t have built-in resistance heat? I thought that was standard backup heat for heat pumps. (That’s how my whole home unit.) .

[@LongTrout]

They are still a piece of shit in Michigan for heat. They are hole in your pocket in the wintertime and don't keep you warm on cold days. Don't try to bullshit the HVAC installer/ Mechanical Contractor.

[@partycrab9494]

He truly is The Engineering Guy for household appliances. I can't wait for the geothermal lecture!

[@WideAwakeHuman]

That’s exactly what I’m wanting lol

[@KevinLyda]

I'm converting my house in Galway, Ireland from oil (kerosene) to an air to water heat pump. Happy to shoot some video and some text explaining it as we get it installed.

[@jayfisher3359]

Say hi to Muhammad

[@KevinLyda]

@@jayfisher3359 what?

[@jayfisher3359]

@@KevinLyda Google "most popular boys name in Galway"

[@redaceFR]

Hello ! I'm from France and I have some interesting things here. Members of my family are farmers, and because of the huge house they got, they had to find a good way to heat up the space without having to go bankrupt every winter. So they installed a heat pump as a main heater (for hot water and heating the interior). What's interesting is that they do not use a air heat pump, they use a water heat pump, let me explain. Because they have a huge need of water for the animals, they had to install their own pump in order to avoid paying too much to have water. The water is directly pumped from a water table below them. So the water is basically free. What the pump does is that it drain water from the water table and then suck up its heat until it reaches 4°C (so it doesn't freeze). Then the water is RETURNED TO THE WATER TABLE (it's not wasted). The main advantage is that the water is almost all the time around the same temperature because it comes from underground (around 12/14 °C if i remember correctly) so there is no problem in using it during really cold and humid weather and it is also extremely efficient. You where talking about underground source for heat, so it's quite close. They still need to use their fireplace to heat-up the air but it's already a huge advantage. On another note, in the family house we have in a very humid region (next to the ocean), we have huge problem with heavy humidity building up inside the house and also the walls (the house is quite old and made up of materials that are quite porous. So we bought a dehumidifier to try and remove a lot of that humidity. It's a very heavy bloc the size of a big computer case. For what I understood about it, it's a closed heat-pump (closed AC to be more precise) that cool the air at the entrance to condense water inside a small tank then simply transfer the heat to the output air via another heat exchanger, the air coming out is a bit warmer than ambient air but it works quite well. We need to empty out it's 5 Liter tank of water every 6/7 hours of it working (inside a small room). Hope you find this interesting ! I'm waiting for part 2

[@ivoivanov7407]

It seems that water/air and water/water heat pumps will be covered in part 2. Or I hope so.

[@richhagenchicago]

They have geothermal heat pumps here that work on the same basic principles. You are using the ground via the ground water as a giant heat sink so that your heat pump will not have the problems that my heat pump will have when the outside air is below or near the boiling point of my refrigerant. I have a similar dehumidifier in my basement. It cools the air down which causes some of the water in that air to condense out which is then dumped through a hose to a drain. The air is then run through a counter flow air to air heat exchanger to warm that air and pre-cool the entering air before the exiting air is blown over the condenser coils and released back into the room. This also pre-cools the incoming air before it is blown over the evaporator coils. I am not sure what the efficiency is, but it would heat the air a bit equivalent to its electricity consumption, which, if holding the same amount of moisture, also lowers its relative humidity as well.

[@Gulyus]

You can also do exactly that concept with modern heat pumps...you just need to run coils of pipe through the ground to absorb energy from the ground.

[@redaceFR]

Whats also interesting is that the heat pump is a two stage heat pump. The first stage is around 30/40 °C to heat up the house and a second stage use the first stage has a heat source to rise the temperature to around 80/90 °C (very hot) for hot tap water (shower, dishes and stuff). If I remember correctly (and I will need to ask for the manual later), it uses the same circuit but cut into 2 sectors with their own pumps to perform the action.

[@techyguruman]

That sounds like it's just an open loop ground source heat pump.

[@richardstern7158]

I'm from Australia and at first thought "heat pump" was going to be some amazing new technology, and then you said "reverse cycle air conditioner" and I was like "oh, aren't they standard everywhere? I have 3 in my home." Apparently not. Here they are very common and work great it our climate.

[@cgrecommended]

Mark Taylor wants to tell you about Australia's favourite air

[@Thermalions]

Yes, you actually really struggle to buy an airconditioner here that isn't reverse cycle (unless you're buying the smallest cheapest unit possible). And that's in a location where you might turn it to heat mode for a couple of hours on just a few days in the year.

[@dog61]

@Heather Petersen And oil and natural gas.

[@georgemaragos2378]

Hi Richard - Sydney dweller here. Yeah i have known reverse cycle air conditioners ( hot and old ) since the 80's basically The old part of the house has a mitsubishi reverse cycle air con from late 80's - still works great The rear part of the house had a LG unit in @1995 but that failed and was replaced 2019 with another mitsubishi The only drawback is you need to remember to change the cycle on the remote from heat to cool 21 heat is was different to 21 cool - so about 2 times a year i remove the batteries for a minute then place them back in and reset it to the correct cycle ( a dot moves between the heat and cool cymbals every 5 seconds , just press the power key on the cycle you want ) Also, if you are in remote or snow / freeze zones you need a higher end model specifically for freezing areas ( like much of north europe / canada ) these machines are more expensive as they have electrical heating element in the outside evaporator to defrost it beore it starts working Regards George

[@antonellacanale1719]

Same here in Argentina, we have one in each bedroom and living room and it works great!

[@jimshorts4317]

This is the most thorough and valuable explanation of heat pumps and, really, HVAC systems for us normal people. Thank you so much. This deserves a lot of praise. Very well done, your effort is highly appreciated.

[@justafan5179]

There was a "Blondie Comic" where Dagwood has the air conditioner in backwards, and Blondie asks "are you air-conditioning the outside, dear?" to which Dagwood responds, "Nope, I'm heating the house." It captures perfectly the irony of the situation you present.

[@ianship5058]

They do work if the ambient is above -5 deg C

[@justafan5179]

@@ianship5058 Agree completely... That's the irony. The comic treats it as ingenious on Dagwood's part, but ultimately a "bless his heart" stupid, sigh from Blondie, for not "just" using a conventional heater... I wish I could find it.

[@hkelly1623]

It’s exactly what a reversible heat pump does, only with a reversing valve instead of turning the entire unit around. A heat pump package unit could be a conventional A/C only sealed system without a reversing valve if ductwork was set up to change the airflow. It must not be efficient as it's not done.

[@EastDallasKicks]

@@hkelly1623 Aren’t heat pumps a thing of the past/present and not a thing of the future? I see a reversing valve in our cheap condenser I think it’s an ameristar unit.

[@2009dudeman]

@@EastDallasKicks Not necessarily. There is a large market for them in many places. You just don't see them a ton in mini-split configurations here in the states. They are instead integrated into the traditional HVAC system. Normal AC is just a heat pump it's just that most of them are one way. Doing away with heat pumps would be doing away with Air conditioning, Fridges, Freezers, etc. They are all just heat pumps, using them for heat is still a better bang for your buck than electric heat. I haven't run the numbers for gas heat.

[@SilverAura]

"Where ever there's a temperature gradient, nature is hot and bothered, frankly, and would very much like it to achieve equilibrium." This kind of wonderfully elegant wording and effortless delivery is the type of witty content I love to see.

[@manoflego123]

I was casually scrolling and read this comment at the exact same time he said it and for a few seconds I though the matrix glitched lmao

[@jefranke]

Since you asked "Why didn't they recommend a heat pump?", my two cents: I used to manage facilities for a restaurant in Minnesota. The heat was provided by the building, and we had constant issues when they temp dropped below 0, which, being in Minnesota, was way too frequent. This was a few years back, mind you, but they had a heat pump that was not rated to the climate, and had no aux heat. According to the HVAC engineer I hired to troubleshoot the issue, this was a common problem with the technology AT THAT TIME. in the early 2000's, the proper control technology was, apparently, prohibitively expensive. My HVAC had been sufficiently "burned" by enough of these (constantly freezing) systems, that he said he would never install or recommend using one in the midwest. Obviously, refrigerants have improved, and the electronics and PLC needed to make these systems run properly have become easily attainable at a low cost.

[@andykillsu]

Well that’s your issue. You should never install an air source Heat pump without backup heat... even in the south when the chances of needing the backup heat are very slim, their air handlers still have electric resistance backup heat.

[@jsbrads1]

@@andykillsu The modern heat exchanger still has a shut off temperature and and Minnesota often drops below the shutoff temperature.

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

Even modern heat pumps aren't good for anything below 10°F and can't out compete a typical gas furnace with 80% efficiency let alone a high efficiency (95-98%) furnace. Heat pumps also require more electricity to run and run longer since at most the air temp leaving the vents is 90° F where as furnace heat comes out at temps that can reach over 135° F. Furnaces have far fewer moving parts and far fewer points of failure, and far more cost efficient in terms of materials and maintenance. A standard heat pump requires at least 3 motors to run, which would be the indoor blower, the outdoor fan, and the compressor, and a furnace at most (high efficiency) only requires the indoor blower and the inducer fan (standard furnaces don't typically have inducer fans). Heat pump efficiency is entirely dependent on outdoor ambient temps so the warmer it is outside, the more efficiency you'll get out of them. A lot of heat pumps also use auxiliary electric heat strips for both comfort and emergency heating and these use a lot of power. I'm an HVAC/R tech and heat pumps are nothing new, and nothing that great, and are definitely not the heating solution of the future. The best solution would be duel fuel systems, which compose both a heat pump and a furnace. This video kinda over sells how great heat pumps really are.

[@andykillsu]

@@Eidolon1andOnly if you don’t have a furnace backup heat in area in the north where it can get that cold, you can always use a ground source heat pump.

[@caja8468]

Well said @@Eidolon1andOnly! This comes across as a commercial for heat pumps and doesn't address how we are going to get the extra power needed from the power grid if a large number of people move to heat pumps. Definitely add more solar + wind but the power grid needs to be able to handle a full load when solar/wind go to zero.

[@a9ball1]

What an outstanding video. I've known for decades how AC works. Could even draw a system for you. But I could not figure out how heat pumps work. Reason, no one told me that the condenser could also be an evaporater. That one little thing that you took the time to share saved me! Thanks 👍

[@psyko2666]

I'm teaching thermodynamics in my class right now, and this is perfect!

[@CAPSLOCKPUNDIT]

"Today we are going to demonstrate how heat pumps harness the power of Maxwell's Demon to isolate high energy particles from a mass of randomly moving molecules, and transport them across a thermal barrier."

[@razvanmazilu6284]

Years of Technology Connections have prepared me for this.

[@janmelantu7490]

The long-awaited heat pump episode

[@nuvaboy]

Next is Teletext!

[@thekingoffailure9967]

I feel like I just took the final exam on a years-long course. Except, y'know, without the heart palpitating panic attacks that take months off my life.

[@5roundsrapid263]

In Scotland, they actually use piles of moss as fuel. Yes, they use peat humps. 😝

[@petertr2000]

See, I thought you powered the entire country on hatred of the English? ;-)

[@balokurd17]

I don't think it's very effective in Scotland because the humidity is very high. Even if it's colder in Siberia, there's less clouds and less humidity !

[@colleenscottcarmello5103]

haha made me chuckle. =D

[@phil20_20]

🥁🥁📯

[@PaulB-jx9nn]

Our Heatpump had a COP over the entire year of higher than 5 in northern germany using R290 as refrigerant. Heat Pumps truly are amazing. Even with the high prices for electricity here it is quite a bit cheaper than burning gas + no chimney.

[@jiggaman508]

I love this channel, my girl seems to always catch me watching these videos and asks why I'm suddenly interested in dishwashers and air conditioners lol.

[@AleksandarIvanov69]

Cause u got a 🧠

[@Tenebrarium]

Haha, "Not now hun, I'm watching a video about dishwashers!"

[@lordjaashin]

@@Tenebrarium why are you watching video about me? - her probably

[@whyamiwastingmytimeonthis]

@@lordjaashin 🤣👌 "ᴡᴏᴍАɴ=ᴅɪꜱʜᴡᴀꜱʜᴇʀ" ᴠᴇʀʏ ꜰᴜɴɪ ʙʀo 👌🤣10/10 ᴊᴏᴋᴋᴇ ᴠᴇʀʏ ʜaʟaʟ ʙʀo👌😆

[@lordjaashin]

@@whyamiwastingmytimeonthis thanks brah. i like it when my audience laugh their tits off to my kosher comedy.

[@t3hd0n]

"its just an ac but backwards" me: *installs my ac backwards for the winter* this can't possibly go wrong lol

[@radnukespeoplesminds]

You just need a bucket incase you have any condensate. Also earplugs.

[@buddyclem7328]

"Turn up the heat." "I can't reach the thermostat anymore!"

[@shawnpitman876]

@@MikePerreman how? It's always going to be below target temperature.

[@tnast]

@@shawnpitman876 You could always pull some trickery with a little circuit reverse engineering, and relocating the thermostat inside. Granted it'd be more work than it's worth, but It's still doable. Basically just an opposite style thermistor than what's already equipped.

[@wiredforstereo]

It would kinda work, they're just not designed to handle frozen heat exchangers like a heat pump is.

[@raydunakin]

I really like the way you explain things.

[@kunjupulla]

#MeToo

[@arfyness]

And let us easily skip through parts already explained before ;o)

[@Akash.Chopra]

@Porky P Iggy I got my heat pump free but now my neighbor is missing his 🤣🤫

[@Akash.Chopra]

@Porky P Iggy I would need a wife first 🤣. If you know her, please make the introduction.

[@McSlobo]

I really don't. Some graphs, diagrams and animations would actually have been helpful instead of a monologue and images of devices, pipes and hoses.

[@Rosher18]

I live and grew up in Marion County in Oregon and all 4 houses I've lived in or gotten to know well have had a combination heat pump/air conditioning unit somewhere out behind or alongside the house. This isn't obscure technology to me, but I was impressed with how well-explained this was, and I now feel better about letting the A/C or heat pump run when it's sunny and my 12.6 kW array can help feed that hungry compressor with the 2100 Watts it wants to keep my house warm.

[@Qwarzz]

It's fun how these always go out of stock in Finland when there's a especially warm summer. We're not used to having air conditioning and these miracle devices gave that as a bonus for lowering heating costs during winter.

[@Juhuuu]

God dammit every time. You'd think people had the foresight to invest in cooling equipment BEFORE the summer but no. It's always at the time of the heatwave. If you couldn't get an air conditioner in the summer, then surely you would buy it in the fall, when they become available again, no? The previous summer isn't going to be the last hot one. They wait until the next summer and the cycle continues. It's a neverending loop.

[@Karjis]

Same phenomenom as why nobody changes winter tyres before you have snow on the ground 😂

[@Qwarzz]

@@Karjis "Talvi yllätty autoilijat" (Drivers surprised by winter). Every single year.

[@markusbjorklund5920]

I live in a flat connected to a district heating but I also have an air source heat pump to cool the flat and to manage the humidity. It does get hot and moist even here in Finland.

[@sunnohh]

@@Juhuuu don’t worry, eventually the ac guys will figure out they should just have crazy high prices all year in your country

[@Soloist1983]

Coming to this channel is like talking with my twin brother. Seriously, 99% of what you do is what we've discussed for years, save for of course the newer topics. Sadly, I lost my brother to leukemia, so in a really odd way, this channel is almost like being able to hang out with him again, which is comforting. Btw, we were both connoisseurs of Xmas lighting, still haven't found an off the shelf, non-garnish, mon-flickering, LED set yet :D

[@edaten4205]

I’m sorry for your loss and I’m glad you’ve found a way to celebrate your brother. Even when bittersweet, I am always appreciative whenever I feel the joy from someone that’s gone.

[@Blankult]

R.I.P.

[@loturzelrestaurant]

@@Blankult Hi. I ask around to see if someone would be interested in a lil Project of mine. Some people try to be the 180 Degree Opposite of Cancel-Culture and try to help KZbin become less... well, lets say 'Messy' to use nice words only... ... Interested to hear a bit more?

[@Blankult]

@@loturzelrestaurant What is it?

[@loturzelrestaurant]

@@Blankult Well, well, where do i start to explain? Basically, looking away from Issues is real popular. I guess you know that. And you surely knew about Cancel-Culture being 'bad'. Yes, it is. BUT did you knew that its 180 Degree Opposite does exist? Some people try to get stuff removed/deleted because they wanna help. Just like Real-Life has the Policephonenumber, KZbin has the reportbutton. It exists for a Reason. Not for no Reason. So the idea is that Racism and much more is findable and reportworthy; a combination that should lead to... well... reportbutton-usage? Sorry, I'm not a big Speech-Maker, just some Guy who got many Covid-Deniers removed; this week alone; but well. It does not work 'enough', overall, but it works enough so that i got the Idea 'why not ask people to join the Fun?'

[@dmac7128]

These dual AC and heating units are found in many Japanese homes and apartments. And where I was living, it never got too close to freezing so it worked well.

[@dmac7128]

@@jack99889988 Gas is probably more efficient but there are some areas of the US where it is not available. In a side by side comparison between conventional electric heating and electrically driven heat pumps, heat pumps are 2-3 times more efficient. Plus the ones found in Japan are designed for a single room. The technology is scalable for use in centralized systems that provide climate control for larger houses.

[@IchWillNicht0119]

Yep if where you're living in Japan doesn't frequently reach freezing during winter, dual ACs are the norm, at least for residences or small businesses. IIRC, even in Tokyo (where it rarely freezes) cogeneration is still popular and aggressively marketed especially for dense business districts.

[@letterbomb211]

Those units are a need, a life ir death changer, winter is mild, but specially summer is so humid and hot as hell, mostly Japanese houses have no insulation and are very leaky, man I can see day light through the wall on the house I live, I'm not the owner so I can't fix it but at least I have a good inverter unit

[@BY-bj6ic]

yes, these units are old school in Japan Energy cost are very high there. Many people still use portable kerosene heaters to heat single rooms.

[@pick26]

If I were a science teacher, I would never do any teaching...I would just have the kids watch this channel every day. What a gem!

[@jamesgates1074]

Entropy: "No!, you can't just concentrate latent heat wherever you want" Humans: "Ha, Ha, compressor go burrrr"

[@e.c.listening326]

That’s a neat summary 👍

[@johnsmith1474]

Hate stupid two-liners.

[@nonchip]

@@johnsmith1474 good that this wasn't one then, but why'd you comment that here since it's unrelated? :P

[@pingaslord9726]

@@johnsmith1474 Wouldn't call it a two liner but you're right. Stupid meme formats like this are used so often. KZbin comments the the worst offenders

[@Mike__B]

@@johnsmith1474 Hate stupid one-liners who only criticize... So that's why this will have another line, because that OP comment was brilliant!

[@yeah493]

I feel like I’m in safe hands when I watch Technology Connections.

[@Xzanah]

Sure, those hands that hold you are safe... But are you...?

[@gioiadelsapere]

I love how he starts most videos start with a pun

[@HotShot-qy1gx]

His voice is like a warm blanket

[@bland9876]

Allstate

[@MrSilverad0]

For me it's like a lullaby. Everything in this show is me likey. Please don't change!

[@iceman95590]

I was a refrigeration engineer for 40 years.(retired) This is the first video I have seen that explains the operation of a heat pump correctly. Well done. I find your "heat" units a little strange, I am used to BthU & Si units. I built my own system using a 3HP Frigidaire unit, (R22) belt driven in my garage, with the evaporator/condenser in a warm air duct system, 35 years ago. Worked well for over 10 years, until I moved house. Serviced it for the new owners for 3 years until I left the area. Love your video's, keep up the high standard. I am in the UK by the way.

[@nickk.4140]

In Korea for a business trip and I was surprised to recognize that almost every building where I am is heated by heat pumps despite during the coldest parts of winter it getting into the single digit negatives (F). Caused some issues on the coldest nights as it would have to pause to defrost periodically but I was able to use a space heater to flatten out the curve in temperature fluctuations.

[@LucasGentry]

I've said this before, but I can't help but say it again: Every time you post a video, the Internet gets better. Thank you very much for that.

[@Thoroughly_Wet]

"the future of home heating" *Me while listening to my 20 yo heat pump spooling up "The future is now, moderately aged man"

[@GregHassler]

Same, since 2008

[@douglas8568]

@@GregHassler I used this since the 80s , living in a third world country

[@Mach141]

these have been common in warmer climates for at least 30 years if not longer

[@johnmiller8884]

Yup. Central Valley of California where a hard freeze (below 25 F) here is considered a natural disaster. Heat pumps are THE thing.

[@timhartherz5652]

They've become the go-to heating system for new Houses about 20 Years ago around here (Germany). People seem to oftwn have a Hard time wrapping their head around how they work, I usually say "Its a fridge installed the Wrong Way around, where the warm Plate is on the inside."

[@ThioJoe]

It feels like latent heat is basically an exploit in the universe we're taking advantage of.

[@Aquatarkus96]

Just gathering and moving hot from one place to another :)

[@xtranormal2350]

I always think the same thing about hydraulics as well as other simple machines. Literally just exploits of physics.

[@Christopher-N]

It's basically a battery, a form of stored energy. Interestingly, there are places in the universe that are colder than the current temperature of the universe. The Boomerang Nebula has been measured at 1 kelvin, while the average temperature of the universe is measured at 2.73 K (using the CMB).

[@ebenolivier2762]

All machines are exploits of nature: A water wheel is just an exploit of gravity, internal combustion engines is an explore of chemical energy, computers using transistors is an exploit of how electromagnetism works etc. A machine just arranges a natural phenomenon in such a way that it's useful to us.

[@davidjgomm]

You don't get owt for nowt, as they say in Yorkshire. Mark my words - extracting heat from from one part of the ecosystem to move it into another will have unforeseen (ie bad) consequences. I don't know what they will be but 'twas ever thus. Think your exploiting the universe? Think again...entropy is a one-way street.

[@jennyakesson9189]

I live in Sweden and we had one of these installed in my childhood home. My experience with it was that it was noisy, made the inside air very humid and hence the "warmth" didn't feel like it. The temperature could say 20celcious but it felt like 17. However, we later got the next step, which was to hook up a airpump similar to this to the warm water tank. So it heated up the water that was spread to the radiators in the house. Really, really nice. Same warmth as before with the same cozy feeling to a fraction of the cost previous.

[@MichaelGiacomelli]

We got a ground-source heat pump and it's great. There's a foot of snow outside, but the "cold" side of the heat pump is 45 degrees since the ground under our house is pretty warm 100ft down. Efficiency in the summer is insane since the "hot" end of the AC is actually colder than the inside of the house! Edit: if you're interested I'm happy to send pictures.

[@captbiptoe]

Nice to see your local government lets you place something other than a well into the ground.

[@rainbowkrampus]

@@captbiptoe Just have to get very creative with the definition of "well" :P

[@elzar760]

I would love a ground-source heat pump.

[@SteveFordham1]

Im curious if these ever saturate the ground temperature since you cant "flow fresh dirt" through it like you can flow fresh cold/warm air through the outside portion of an air source heat pump. Does this happen to a certain degree?

[@moi01887]

Same here! We had one installed in 2012 and it's been great, even in New England winters. One thing I was concerned about was noise, with the compressor being inside the house, as it's in a room right next to our basement media room. But the thing is darn near silent.

[@jamminwrenches860]

My mom used to yell at me "I'm not air conditioning the whole neighborhood! Close the door! Showed you mom, now you ARE air conditioning the whole neighborhood now. In the winter anyway.

[@mattbanks3517]

i hate my heat pump. I hate electric heat. Slow, dries your skin and turns off when i need it. I prefer an ethanol fire

[@diablo.the.cheater]

@@mattbanks3517 heat is heat.

[@mattbanks3517]

@@diablo.the.cheater yes but a propane heater or a simple wood/ethanol fire is instant heat and runs when i want it to run, electric heaters and heat pumps have stupid thermostats that turn off when they want to.

[@jbetfifty5904]

@Maiahi what? since when did your parents yelling at you become a bad thing?

[@jbetfifty5904]

@Maiahi what? sometimes parents need to discipline their kids, and it didnt even sound like his mom was trying to do that it sounded like she was just joking around

[@FroggevPvp]

I am writing a simple paper on heat pumps for school (as a future electrician) and this really helped me understand the process in order for me so that I can explain it to another; magically the technical bits will fill themselves out as I pad them with examples and fun facts about the subject. Lots of companies make these here in Scandinavia and I have a feeling this will be useful knowledge going into my field. Thank you for creating this. I agree, heat pumps are very cool hot.

[@judevecoli865]

Thanks for this. I moved to Florida from Rhode Island a couple years ago. I was told my "heating system" was a heat pump. I honestly had no idea what that was. Or how it related to the increasing popularity of the wall mount units you have. I have serviced my own gas heaters over the years, and also understand a traditional electric system that pumps the water from room to room. Throw in radiant heat and both active and passive solar systems, and I felt I had a pretty good handle on heating systems. As soon as you explained the basics my brain went "aha" and I saw where you were going. I should have asked sooner. Not that it changes anything. I am certainly not qualified to work on refrigerant based systems. So repairs will be left to the professionals. At least now I will be able to ask questions and understand the answers if my system needs work.

[@nisbahmumtaz909]

No matter how many times I hear it explained, refrigeration cycles are so goddamn magical science, it's really indistinguishable from fiction

[@Gulyus]

Basically, what is exploited is that changing the phase and pressure changes the temperature seen by the opposite sides of the unit. It isn't magic so much as utilization of the laws of thermodynamics to our benefits.

[@wiredforstereo]

It's really basic physics. You compress something, it gets hot. You release that pressure, it gets cold. An AC system is simply turning that concept into a continuous cycle.

[@TheRealColBosch]

Yes. Magic, like the OP said.

[@damanorelse]

My desire to consolidate got me dreaming of a future when a house has one big refrigerant circuit that provides heating, hot water, fridges, freezers, and ACs.

[@RGInquisitor]

Why? So if a single part of that entire circuit fails, it ALL goes down?

[@matthewtuel2747]

In commercial refrigeration (restaurants, grocery stores etc), it is common to use a shared circuit for the chillers, refrigerators, icemakers and what-not. I don't think you could share that with an A/C system but I also am not an expert at refrigeration. This helps keep the indoor air at a reasonable temp without over-taxing the A/C.

[@WangChung81]

You can already do it really. Not only do they make "mini split" refrigerators but all you need to do is modify any fridge you want with a plate heat exchanger and run a water loop through it. Have a HVAC tech braze one on for you in place of the condenser, the run some PEX to the fridge.

[@OrangeC7]

@@RGInquisitor In theory, if you're consolidating it all to one system, then you could have two backup systems. On top of the main heat pump system, you have a backup heat pump and then auxiliary heating. I'm not an urban engineer/anyone else that would consider this, though, so there's probably something I'm missing

[@RGInquisitor]

@@OrangeC7 Well you definitely could have backups, but a consolidated system in itself would already be very complex. Adding redundancy to each part of the system would be a lot more work than just having each part working independently.

[@mikekarloff8114]

Another amazing video! Cheers from Canada, where I LOVE my Mitsubishi Hyper-Heat system. Works down to -30°C, and well. Many systems, like mine, can run multiple heater heads inside the home (mine has 4), off the single unit outside, and since the individual units in the home can be set to automatically cycle to lower temperatures when you leave the room, I’m not wasting energy by keeping all the zones hot at once. Enter a room, and within seconds the unit knows I’m there and starts kicking out the heat/cooling.

[@dognoseranger]

We have that unit in NH, it's our only heat system. Did you buy a different remote to control the unit?

[@mikekarloff8114]

@@dognoseranger I have a remote for each indoor unit. As far as I know, they came with each head when I bought the system (or perhaps the guy who installed it ordered them). In any case, yes, I have individual remotes in each room. But it’s possible to just use one remote to program any of the heads with.

[@dognoseranger]

@@mikekarloff8114 Thanks. We got basic remotes with ours. I've seen some "wifi" versions with more extensibility (few hundred bucks?), but haven't found anyone who tried one yet.

[@BinTechLLC]

I have been binge watching a lot of your videos out of order (have seen quite a few already I am watching again because they are super good) and I keep getting all the beginning episode one liners that are just gold! I'm pumped too. ;)

[@bracco23]

This video feels like the first avengers, bringing all the previous videos together to create a masterpiece.

[@bg45420]

When I was a kid in the 70s, my parents had a 60s vintage Kelvinator refrigerator. It used a process similar to a heat pump to defrost itself. A few times a day we would hear a shhhhh sound as the refrigerant would reverse flow. Occasionally, the mechanical timer would fail but otherwise, it was a good refrigerator.

[@termitreter6545]

interesting, I never heard about refrigerators defrosting. I guess modern fridges are just built in a way where they dont need to do that? Or maybe they still have the capability and only do that when its really cold.

[@hkelly1623]

Defrosting of modern refrigerators is by an electric heater behind a panel at the back of the food compartment. The refrigerator shuts off and turns the heater on for a couple of minutes. It's simpler and cheaper than having the refrigerant flow reversed.

[@termitreter6545]

@@rebeuhsin6410 Yeah I suspect modern fridges to be optimized af.

[@nisargbhavsar25]

@@termitreter6545 Yeah old refrigerators needed to be defrosted. Initially there used to be manual button for it. We used to have a LG refrigerator which had it. In later models the refrigerator started doing it on its own and now modern refrigerators have a panel on there sides and back which are separate heaters as it is more efficient than literally reversing the flow. This is the reason why old refrigerators had literally pipes running through there back.

[@termitreter6545]

@@nisargbhavsar25 Neat! I do remember my family having had an old refrigerator with those pipes in the back.

[@aaronbatchelor5978]

I have been installing large commercial and smaller domestic heapumps in New Zealand for 15+ years. Heatpumps are even better than the video suggests as some systems (VRF) can cool one area then divert that gas that has absorbed heat to another room and heat that room for free. Every house has a heatpump for heating in winter , they get used as and air conditioner to a lesser extent in summer depending on your location. Great video! its hard to explain how you can heat a room by absorbing all the cold from that room.

[@watamatafoyu]

"heat that room for free"... uh oh, you said the magic words that summon capitalism gremlins to want to destroy the technology

[@xr6lad]

Sorry heat pumps in low temperatures are next to useless. I live in a cold part of Australia and the one factor common is that the evaporator start to ice up after a few minutes of creating the heat. And any useful heat ceases. We don’t have basements to hide them. We need to be honest and stop living in a fantasy world. At zero degrees it’s better to light a fire than wait for the heat pump to work. And I have two in two different parts of the house

[@aaronbatchelor5978]

@@xr6lad the coldest part of Australia would be equal to or warmer than nzs coldest Heat pumps aren't air conditioners, it was minus 5deg C here this morning, my heatpump was cranking out the heat, house was easy 23deg c Yes there is 15min of each our for defrost.... bigger external coil area equals more heat.... not sure what system your referring to

[@jerrymyahzcat]

@@aaronbatchelor5978Not entirely true. I live in Australia (after 40 yrs in New Zealand). Plenty of places in australia get as cold as NZ - although I agreed the coldest in NZ is likely colder than Australia’s coldest. Yeah NZ has a colder average climate. Even in winter in Christchurch when it snowed in 2011 and I ran the heat pump all day at 23°C the unit only stopped hourly for 5-10 mins to defrost (not 15).

[@nemoexnuqual3643]

Absolutely love mine! My area does get extremely cold, mine is a “hyper heat” model for -20(f) and below -20 (actually a little above that) it has trouble, so resistive and wood pellet are required for a couple months. My split unit compressor has saved me hundreds throughout the year.

[@ofngol]

34:06 "For now, stay warm." Me in the Philippines at 3:00am : - turns airconditioning on because it's too hot -

[@Bagsy84]

get a dehumidifier

[@henryairconcepts2999]

In tropical countries, heatpumps only cool, less complicated system and last longer

[@federicomarintuc]

@@henryairconcepts2999 I live in north Argentina and every year more models sold are hot/cold because we are little pussies when temperature goes below 10 C

[@marlonmartins82]

@@henryairconcepts2999 I'm in Brazil, heat pump are more expensive and not useful. I barely use a oil heater at half power to sleep in some winter cold days.

[@henryairconcepts2999]

@@marlonmartins82 I see. I live in NZ people live in pacific area and south east asia only have cooling heatpump. And it’s cheap to buy. Maybe around $300-400 including install for small heatpump like underr 1kw

[@101stsurvivor]

These have been the standard in air conditioning here in nz for ages now. I think they're even required in rentals now.

[@fhj007]

This feels like the avengers endgame of technology connections

[@Steets]

What you didn't see was the toast offscreen, which was being heated by the mini-split.

[@FPSNecromancerBob]

Latent heat "I am inevitable..."

[@tommyagnello4100]

This is only Infinity War. Endgame comes in part 2

[@sebastiangorka200]

no this is infinity war endgame is gonna be heatpumps part 2: underground heatpump

[@davidthorne5715]

Plz stop comparing things to marvel and Harry Potter movies 😬

[@notbrianbradley]

I don't know why people don't think abstractly and think of "AC" (conditioning the air but only in the cold direction for some reason (well...of course)), a refridgerator, among some other appliances as just "applied heat pumps." I was actually surprised to see your title, as you have the earlier videos about how there needs to be a place to pump the heat so those inside AC units without a part outside don't work. But then I realized how helpful it would be and how (seemingly) silly it is we don't use the same heat pump for "AC" as we do heat. I'm glad you made this video because it really is as simple as having the temperature control "executor" would be that display that labels the compressor and evaborator twice. I suppose calling them the higher level category about them being one of two ends of the heat pump might help. Speaking of heat, I also want to thank you for those videos about ceramic room heaters (completely random other than concept association with heat). Anyway, great video as always. I know I'm late but that's video on demand platforms for ya.

[@Caffeine_Addict_2020]

It’s really common that heat pumps are used for both AC and heat though. My place is a piece of garbage but we have a heat pump for both AC and heat; it sucks

[@thejackalope2622]

Me, 2 minutes into the video: "All I have to do is turn my air conditioner around? Done."

[@Kraus-]

You joke, but you can literally do that with a window mounted unit. The temperature control would be useless but yolo.

[@GreyValkrie]

Dont even need to reverse it. Just take it out and run it, the heat produced is greater than the cold air produced from the AC part of the unit. Its how I kept my room back at my parents house warm during the winter cause it wasnt connected to the central vents.

[@CircuitrinosOfficial]

@@GreyValkrie if you run it with the whole thing inside, it is equivalent to resistive heating and therefore much less efficient. It's no longer running as a heat pump.

[@AvgDan]

@@GreyValkrie sorry but mining crypto currency or running an electric space heater would have been better.

[@emotionz3]

Someone needs to modify a portable dual-hose air conditioner to basically change the hose connections to the top portion for heating, and the bottom portion for air conditioning. This would eliminate any need for even reversing the direction of the refrigerant. The hoses present some loss (as they are moving air, warm or cold depending on the configuration) but it'd be, effectively, a portable self contained mini-split system. Of course it would be loud as the compressor is inside, but this would be perfect for a garage or basement year-round. My portable dual hose unit has a heating function but it literally runs a ceramic heating element inside the unit like a space heater, thus is no more efficient than a space heater.) Even if it cost $1000, it'd be worth it.

[@sokrates297]

This video is great to fall asleep to, not because it is boring in any way, but because your way of explaining is calming. True ASMR for engineers.

[@snowballeffect7812]

I'm hyped for ground-source heat pumps.

[@wiredforstereo]

We've pretty much moved past them at this point. Air source are so efficient and ground source are so expensive to install, they really don't make sense anymore. In many cases, it's more cost effective to install solar panels to make up the difference. Same with solar water heating. For several years now, it has been more cost effective to install a heatpump water heater and solar panels than a solar water heating system.

[@snowballeffect7812]

@@wiredforstereo interesting. I thought maybe ground-source would be more scalable (for larger buildings) and better for extreme climates.

[@Basement-Science]

@@snowballeffect7812 They are better in every way, except initial cost. Mostly because everyone is doing it wrong though. Really, it just depends how long you want to wait until it becomes worth the extra cost.

[@xHadesStamps]

As in geothermal?

[@haroldhenderson2824]

@@xHadesStamps No, more like trying to "bake" the soil during summer and trying to "freeze" it even colder during the winter. Geothermal uses already hot rocks/soil to provide the heat for electric generation or heating only (no option to reject heat into the rocks/soil).

[@csumme7]

They are quite common here in Finland. Our apartment has one, they are Nordic models of course. We have wall batteries for those really cold night (-20-30C) but there don't come on very often unless going in and outside.

[@peterhub1]

your pun delivery caught me off guard. I'm pumped too. This is amazing, I can't believe I never thought of doing this. The heat that is pumped has more watts than the electricity used to pump it. absolutely the most efficient way to heat a building.

[@alexku8452]

And now lets combine that with a proper insulation in Walls AND windows. If the insulation even more reduced the amount of energy needed to either heat or cool the place, well, that makes them look even better. Does the US know something like a passive house? that is an energy efficiency standard in Germany (and I assume a lot of other countries around Europe and likely the world) that defines such a high heat efficiency through insulation etc., that the house requires no external energy to heat or may even produce more energy than needed, (e.g. with solar collectors, through sunlight shining ionto windows etc.). In the depest winter it may need just some additional minimal heating. A colleague living in one told me, just looking at heating the body heat of three people living in the house is already sufficient to keep the temperature up, now add all your electric devices producing heat, cooking, showering,... Seems at some point you are more confronted with an efficient way to get rid of the excessive heat. I think most have ventilation systems with heat exchangers.

[@jw3843]

@@alexku8452 I have never seen one in US. It may exist here but I have not heard of one. If it does it is most likely in California where they tend to be ahead of other states on things like that. In the southeast of America (i am in Florida) it is humid all the time around 60 to 90% humidity on a regular bases with 80 to 100 degree F temps (26 to 38 C) so you need air conditioning to get rid of the humidity. We hardly ever need heating. It gets cold maybe 2 weeks a year in Florida and that is usually above freezing. In the summer you can get around 2 to 5 gallons of water out of the house a day through air conditioning. I dont know about the northern United States but most US states get up to 100F/38C in the summer even the northern ones. In the northern USA it gets below 0F in winter but also get hot in summer. I do not know the climate in Germany myself but insulation without ac in the south USA is no help. you have to have AC to keep the inside comfortable and mold free. the closest I have seen to what you are talking about was from a video i watched from Matt Risinger that does home construction in Texas. he showed a house they built using i think 2 foot of insulation on the outside and only needed one mini split air conditioner to cool the entire house. if most places built houses like that it would be better. one of the biggest issues in the USA is the amount of different climates we have all across the USA.

[@peterhub1]

@@alexku8452 that certainly is an optimistic view. I would be all for it. The trouble lies in convincing people that the long term cost savings justify the large initial cost. Perhaps when the world runs out of oil we will see people care more about efficiency.

[@michaeldaigle7207]

Bro the world building in this series is insane. Months upon months of videos all building different ideas to a point where they all neatly tuck back into themselves with new topics.

[@DrakeDaraitis]

I feel like T-Connections is just justifying the cost of each new household product with a video.

[@27dcx]

KZbin is a business so anything used for a video can be a write off on taxes

[@officer_baitlyn]

@@27dcx not sure how it is in the us, but usually u can write stuff off only partially

[@EebstertheGreat]

@@officer_baitlyn You're only supposed to write off whatever fraction is used for business. So for instance, if I use my computer 8 hours a day for work and 4 hours a day for other purposes, I'm only supposed to write off two thirds of its purchase and operating costs. For things like this heat pump, he's probably not supposed to write anything off at all, because he already bought it for another purpose and just had it around and decided to make a video of it. But for something like his Edison phonograph, he could easily write off 100%, since he bought it pretty much exclusively for the video.

[@Mengmoshu]

I was thinking that it's sort of the other way around. KZbinring is paying off, so he can buy these gadgets that improve his home, but he's Technology Connections so he sees an opportunity to do a video. And in this case it's a great video.

[@theglowcloud2215]

@@EebstertheGreat The tax code in the U.S. is such a garbage fire, however, that people are encouraged to do some creative accounting in order to minimize their taxable income. And I don't blame them.

[@montagneverte]

I just built an apartment building that uses heat pumps down to -30C. It also has a third refrigerant line for the heat recovery. That lets certain people air condition if they are south facing and it lets the colder apartments use that rejected energy to heat.

[@SpryMahiMahi]

I've gotta say, watching this video was extremely fun. It reminded me of when I'd learn something in school, usually science related, and I'd have that moment of "THAT'S SO COOL!" The Joy of Learning: returned to me. I had no idea there were demo pieces like your patron provided video of! like that's utterly fascinating.

[@Tas-Devil]

In Tasmania we have been heating our homes with reverse cycle air conditioner (heatpumps) for 25+ years. They work great and are very cheap to run.

[@richardcrossley5581]

My sister has them in New Zealand too.

[@nolankanski9116]

I'm liking this refrigeration cycle cinematic universe

[@SomeAdam]

It's very climactic.

[@nthgth]

@@SomeAdam one might even say climatic

[@lennonmclean]

Alec probably just walks around his house and the first thing his eyes lay upon, he's like "I'm gonna make a video about that" and I love it

[@TheCgOrion]

We have a "Mini Split" installed in our addition, and it does a fantastic job of both cooling and heating throughout the seasons. It even heats well quite a bit below freezing.

[@electrictroy2010]

THE SPLIT HEAT PUMP doesn’t have built-in resistance heat? I thought that was standard backup heat for heat pumps. (That’s how my whole home unit.) .

[@TheCgOrion]

@@electrictroy2010 I guess some probably do, but this particular unit warns that it's only effective down to about 19°F (around -7°C).

[@VisualBasic6]

"We're still talking about refrigeration but I wanted you back for this" >.> Fool me once.

[@RJ_P777]

Here in Phoenix, we have been using a single central air heat pump for super hot days and cold near freezing days for heating. Also, we use a single heat pump to heat our pools in the winter and cool them in the summer. Without them, in the summer the water gets as hot as a bathtub and is not refreshing. Thanks, Heat Pumps!

[@Karjis]

Do you get the pool extra heat pushed to hot water tank or is it just pushed out?

[@adventureawaits3646]

very good video and explanation! Once our A/C and/or heating dies, I'll definitely look into these systems. Here in NorCal we rarely get to freezing, so should be no problem. My sister in Germany, where it can be -4F for weeks, had a heat pump system put in, they also removed and replaced their wood fire place with a system that has fans and some more tech I didn't pay too much attention to, but that's their supplemental heat source if it gets that cold. This is their first winter with the system and it's balmy warm in their house. Add solar panels on the roof and they're saving a bundle and are more environmental. We have to first replace the roof before adding panels, but that will happen soon too. Thanks for all these really well done videos!

[@cstreet1824]

Don't do it. Running your compressor year round when you could use gas heat will increase your electrical bill significantly.

[@tommytron2000]

I forwarded this video to a customer to help simplify how these systems work. She loved the video and I sold the job. Keep up what your doing people live it.

[@mirai3263]

He is right about the amount of power used, this past winter we found out. It was cheaper to let the heat pump run for 24hrs rather than letting the actual heating elements run for 12hrs.

[@balokurd17]

It depends, if the humidity is high with very low temperature, your external unit will freeze and you'll loose power with your defrost cycle

[@barclaymatheson8240]

And the colder it gets outside the less efficient a heat pump becomes

[@herbderbler1585]

So they're no good for Siberia, got it. Meanwhile a billion homes in the temperate latitudes will probably be able to make use of them just fine.

[@balokurd17]

@@herbderbler1585 lol talking about Siberia : even if it's cold, it's a very dry place so your heatpump won't necessarily be an ice block. Moreover on sunny days, (and Siberia is way less cloudy than Scotland) you can benefit of this weather to turn on your heatpump during the day than switch on the fire during the colder, wet night

[@MrOnosa]

I just had a friend ask me if he had a heat pump. He's selling his home and filling out a questionnaire. Oh man did he come to the right person for such a specific question...

[@CREGGYAS]

In practical use expect to see “emergency heat” on your thermostat. Using electric coils to supplement the heat pump.

[@vayrie]

the way your tshirt has folded is absolutely sending me

[@seraaron]

This is like finding out that solar cells are just LEDs

[@edge21str]

Holy shit, I didn't know that.

[@ethansmith9065]

Wait... WHAT?!

[@MiniMii550]

Explain. Now. Please

[@ginsederp]

@@MiniMii550 Just like all speakers are also microphones, and all motors are also generators. All diodes emit light when a current runs though them, and all diodes generates a current when light shines onto them. Both solar cells and LEDs are diodes. So shining light onto an LED generates (a shitty amount of) energy and running a current through a solar panel causes it to become the world's most useless floodlight (it's in infrared)

[@kingderderder]

This video by steve mould explains this kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIiqfK1oqLqUZtk

[@stijnvth]

I really like you're style ... you do this very well. You're unique in both your style and delivery and topic but i never once felt bored. There aren't many people out there who pull that off talking about ambient energy around a freeze and equilibrium ... Good stuff! :-)

[@beansnrice321]

My parent's heat pump kept heating their DeKalb, IL garage during the recent blizzard without issue. Heat pumps are amazing!

[@megadog9305]

*Finally releases the heat pump video.* *There's a part II.*

[@rodrigomadera]

Incredible content, as usual. It’s rare to find such production quality filled with solid engineering knowledge. Definitely one of my favorites on YT.

[@EvilGenius007]

So you're telling me I actually do want to air condition the whole neighborhood (as long as it's already cold outside)?

[@haroldhenderson2824]

AND the heat from "cooling the outside" is released indoors!

[@deusexaethera]

Yes.

[@gregoryclemen1870]

that is why the winters are getting colder, its all those heat pumps running!!!!!

[@Hagemann666]

I'm building a new home right now and I installed an air source heat pump based largely on the information gleaned from this video. Thanks!