For a full year I have lived in a house that has one of these.

It’s a hot summer and I’m delighted that it can not only heat but also keep my place cool!

Now I got an email from my electricity provider that during the last weeks (I was at home most of the time) my electricity consumption was roughly twice of what it usually is.

Hence my question: compared to its heating capabilities, does a heat pump use much more electricity for cooling?

I’m not looking for a scientific breakdown.

edit:

Thanks for all replies so far. Cooling seems to be trickier than heating and I should keep my windows closed, which just feels wrong during summer… but apart from that cooling does not use more energy than heating.

  • Iced Raktajino@startrek.website
    0·
    16 days ago

    Heat pumps move heat. In the summer, it’s pulling heat from inside and moving it outside and the opposite of that in the winter.

    Basically, the temperature differential is what makes the difference. The larger the differential, the more energy it has to use.

    In the winter, when it’s 30 degrees (F) outside, and you want it to be 70 inside, that’s 40 degrees it has to move. In the summer when it’s 90 degrees outside, and you want it at 70 inside, that’s only 20 degrees.

    Air source heat pumps, as the name implies, pull heat from (and exhaust heat to) the ambient air. When it’s really cold in the winter, there’s less ambient heat to move inside, so it has to run longer. Some (all?) heat pumps also have an auxiliary resistive heating element to make up the difference which lowers efficiency quite a bit.

    Granted, newer heat pumps can work well down to lower temperatures without having to engage the aux heat than the older ones I’m familiar with, but in a nutshell, that’s why they can potentially use less energy in the summer.