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Comment by 2-718-281-828 | Hacker News Reader

are heat pumps interesting to you folks because you have one or think about getting one or because the technology is in some aspect particularly impressing/counterintuitive/ingenuous? i ask because this topic is popping up regularly and so far i fail to see why.

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the technology is in some aspect particularly impressing

Yes, because for every unit of energy you directly put into it (in the form of electricity) it outputs more energy (in the form of heat). Which is unlike any other typical heating system, which usually puts out less or at max the same amount.

like a perpetuum mobile?

No because that doesn't exist in practice. The losses of converting the generated energy back into electricity make that impossible.

that's not true. i saw a working implementation of a perpetuum mobile in a youtube video.

Sorry but no. Then it wasn't a perpetuum mobile. There's no way to violate the laws of thermodynamics. Likely the video was not showing everything, and/or giving a false impression/explanation. Typcial example are those toy birds picking water: it looks like a perpetuum mobile, but it in fact uses the energy present in the water. Once the water evaporates all it stops. Adding new water constantly makes it run forever, but that's by the grace of adding energy into the system hence defeating the idea.

you're not getting it :/

Rather like electric cars, they're a technology lots of people are thinking about getting for environmental reasons, but also a big fixed investment so people are keen to understand.

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