ACs are very common in Norway, primarily for heating during winter. Also really nice to have during heatwaves too of course
As an European, we need to realise that AC also throws hot air if needed, it can be used as a substitute for radiators.
Technically it is more energy efficient that radiators at heating the place, so if you are mainly in a single room its cheaper to switch on the AC than the heating.
NeilNuggetstrong@lemmy.world 4 days ago
folekaule@lemmy.world 4 days ago
AC in the US aren’t (usually) heat pumps. The most common setup here is a furnace for heating (usually natural gas) plus AC, connected to the same central air unit. Heat pumps are pretty common, but not nearly as universal.
Just mentioning it because “AC” isn’t usually used to refer to heat pumps here.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz 3 days ago
They’re heat pumps by definition, just locked into operating one way
folekaule@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I’m aware, but when I talk to regular people here in the Midwest, they will not be thinking heat pumps if you call them AC. I’m just trying to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org 4 days ago
I’d argue about the cheaper point as that depends heavily on how the standard heating is organized.
Like living in an apartment complex with central heating and paying for it based on m² regardless of how much it’s used and that isn’t that rare based on multiple rental apartments I’ve rented over the years before buying my own apartment.
That system is mostly still done to force sharing of the heating load, because with a system that measures how much heating is used, it’s completely possible for middle apartments to completely turn off heating and rely on surrounding apartments to keep them near 16-20c, depending on outer insulation of the apartment complex. Anything above 18c is comfortable and 16 is already tolerable if heating is expensive. While outer apartments need to compensate to keep their temperature in livable range.
Heating with AC would just add on top of already existing heating bill with a centralized heating system that cant be regulated.