Many people, when buying an apartment without central heating, consider the option of heating with an air conditioning unit. Is this an effective solution?
As the heating season approaches, many are reconsidering if they could heat their homes more economically, and one of the options is heating with an air conditioning unit. Recently, we discussed heating with pellets, which is a highly efficient system but requires significant initial investment. Still, one of the most popular heat sources in apartments is electric energy.
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Besides storage heaters, which are economical as they charge during off-peak hours when electricity is cheaper, air conditioning units are also highly popular because most households already have them. An air conditioning unit operates based on the principles of thermodynamics, compressing and expanding gas. The higher the pressure created by the air conditioner compressor during operation, the higher the temperature of the gas passing through the indoor unit, thereby heating the room.
When the heating option is on, the indoor unit is warm, while the outdoor part of the air conditioner is cold; the reverse applies when cooling. The only difference is the direction of the gas flow, whether it evaporates, i.e., cools down, in the outdoor or indoor unit. Therefore, an air conditioning unit does not use any heaters like those commonly found in electric heaters or storage heaters, making them incomparably more efficient.
For every kilowatt of electricity invested, an air conditioning unit emits three to four kilowatts of heat, which no conventional electric heating element can match. Sounds like a winning combination, right? However, there are certain drawbacks.
Standard air conditioning units can effectively heat only when the outdoor temperature is above five degrees Celsius below zero. When it gets colder, the outdoor temperature is too low to achieve the necessary heat exchange to warm the room because ice accumulates on the heat exchanger. This applies to conventional air conditioning units.
There are also units with so-called inverter technology available. It allows adjusting the compressor power and fan speed to temperature conditions, so ice accumulates on the outdoor unit at much lower temperatures. Inverter units can heat until the thermometer drops below minus 18 degrees Celsius (approximately -0.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
One advantage is that they consume up to 30 percent less electricity in this way. Unlike inverters, standard air conditioners have a compressor with only two modes – on and off. This is not a suitable solution for all temperature conditions.
In addition to inverter units, there are air conditioning units with built-in additional heaters of about 200 watts wound around the outdoor unit’s coil. Thanks to this addition, the air conditioner can heat up to ten degrees below zero.
One inconvenience of air conditioning units is that they heat locally. For example, an inverter unit with a power of 1.2 kW, a popular “twelve”, can heat a small apartment, but it does so locally, i.e., only heats the room it is in, but not other rooms, especially when the outdoor temperature significantly drops. It is concluded that a good air conditioning unit with inverter technology is sufficient for heating shops or studio apartments, especially if they are well-insulated buildings.
In all other cases, air conditioning is a good solution only for supplementary heating. For example, during the night in households heated by solid fuel, where it is not possible to “maintain the fire”, air conditioning is an excellent solution. Air conditioning can also be an excellent solution for transitional periods when a little extra heating is enough.
Advantages of air conditioning units:
- Air conditioning units consume the least amount of electricity of all electric appliances. It can only be matched by storage heaters if the heat is accumulated at night at a cheaper rate.
- Air conditioning units have the best efficiency – with 1 kW of electricity input, they provide about 3 kW of heat output.
- Besides heating, air conditioning units are also used for cooling in the summer, meaning that two investments are covered with one.
- They are practical to use, much more comfortable than heating with solid fuel, and with some units, it is possible to program them to turn on automatically, for example, before returning from work.
- Air conditioning units are mounted high on the wall, so they do not take up valuable space in the apartment.
Disadvantages of air conditioning units:
- The heating effect decreases as the temperature drops, except for inverter units, which operate down to -18 degrees Celsius (approximately -0.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
- One air conditioning unit can usually effectively heat only one room.
- The air heating system, or forced air circulation, is not as pleasant as radiator heating.
Foto: Freepik