"Micro” heat pumps aren’t as powerful as whole-home versions, but they’re portable, plug into a 120V outlet — and they’re increasingly effective in the cold.
  • whodatdair@lemm.ee
    13·
    5 months ago

    Beware the one-hose energy suckers!

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_-mBeYC2KGc

    TL;DW units with one hose pull interior air over the coils to do the energy exchange, then blow that air out the hose. This makes your space become a negative pressure zone and the air is replaced with unconditioned outside air which must be conditioned.

  • Troy@lemmy.ca
    102·
    5 months ago

    This is just a rebranding of a portable AC, which has always been a heat pump. Heat pumps are a trendy search term.

    • silence7OP
      12·
      5 months ago

      It’s a rebranding, and allowing the heat pump to be used as a heating system; a fair number of units “with heat” use a resistive heater, as the article mentions.

      • Troy@lemmy.ca
        3·
        5 months ago

        Ah. I’ve had one in my garage for years that was a proper heat pump, but never branded as such. I’m in a cheap hydroelectric powered region though, which made these things make sense for a long time.

  • leanleft@lemmy.mlEnglish
    61·
    5 months ago

    filling empty space with boxes is one way to lower the amount of air that needs to be heated or cooled.

  • boonhet@lemm.ee
    2·
    5 months ago

    I’m happy those exist (after all, not everyone can get a proper heat pump installed, maybe because landlord is an asshole, maybe because other people in your apartment building say they don’t want the noise, maybe you live in a historic part of town), but holy hell are they useless compared to a real heat pump.

    If you CAN get a real one installed, but your current finances only allow for the portable one - I’d recommend considering waiting for the real deal if you’re able to save up for it. I spent ~300 euros on a portable one, it was OK for cooling a tiny room, never used for heating because the damn thing made too much noise to be worth it in a big house with a working central heating system. I then spent nearly 3000 euros (including installation) on a relatively powerful heat pump. It’s probably cut my winter heating costs in half (at the cost of driving up the electric bill a bit of course).

    The kicker? The noisy portable one isn’t JUST gutless, it also uses more power.

    And don’t even get me started on sealing it properly with european style windows (you know, the kind that tilt on two axes rather than lifting up).