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A heatpump is a device that moves heat from one place to other.
It subtracts heat in one side (cools that side) and dumps it in the other (heats that other side).
We have already those devices available to install at home, and are commonly known as Air Conditioning.
The inside unit grabs the heat (cools the room) and the outside unit dumps the heat.
Those same devices are now reversible, so they are able to grab heat from the outside unit, and dump it in the room (heats the room).
I can't help but to hear this in his voice, Technology Connections.
And now you can listen to some cool smooth jazz and bloopers while reading the closed caption easter egg instead of watching the credits
But AC also has some sort of coolant,no? Or is that just to makenit cool more and it would be possible even without it?
AC as refrigerant, not coolant. Although that might be semantics.
AC is a type of heat pump. You are moving heat from inside to outside. The physics behind a heat pump, is fairly simple. There are three principles to work with.
- Take a gas, compress it, and it gets super hot.
- Take a compressed gas, let it rapidly expand, and it gets super cold
- Different temperature gases move from hot to cold
Let's focus on AC since most folks are used to that concept. In an AC, you have a closed loop of refrigerant. Outside, there is a compressor that compresses the gas, which makes it very hot. The gas is pushed through a radiator with a fan pulling air through it. Since hot moves to cold, the heat trapped in the gas moves to the outside air, and the gas is slightly cooled. (As long as the gas is hotter than outside).
Inside, there is an expansion valve that lets the gas rapdly expand, making it super cold. It is pumped through a radiator that has inside air blowing over it with a fan. Since hot moves to cold, the heat in the inside air moves to the cold gas, cooling the inside air. (As long as the gas is cooler than the inside temperature). It is then pumped outside to start the loop again.
So, inside gets cooler while the heat is moved outside. The physics also establishes the limits of the heat exchange. You will only grab heat from inside if the expansion makes the gas colder than the air inside. Typically it expands to around 0 degrees. Likewise, it will dump the heat outside if the gas is hotter than outside air. The compressor typically makes it 130 to 140 degrees (temps vary depending on many factors).
To use a heat pump for heating rather than cooling, reverse the process. Pick up the heat from outside and dump it inside. This will work as long as outside is warmer than the expanded gas (0 degrees or so). Although you can get some that go to around -20.
Even though I won't act like I understood it all perfectly, this is great stuff! Never occured to me this is how ACs work.
It's just a piece of the puzzle.
You could create a cooling "machine" without any sort of coolant for sure, look up Peltier plates for example