Written As Jonathan Losh explained, a vapor compression air conditioner's sole purpose in life is to move heat from one space to another.  It could be moving heat from the inside of your refrigerator to your house, from inside your house to the great outdoors or from the inside of your car to outside.If you want to heat with this cycle, "simply" turn it around.  (Its really not that simple.)  This is the basic concept of a "heat pump".  They are air conditioners that in the summer take heat from your house and push it outside.  In the winter, the cycle reverses and it pulls heat from outdoors and pushes it into the house.  It works efficiently down to around 10 to 20F outside at which point it is typically to cold to pull the heat out of the outdoors efficiently.Could you simply take a window A/C unit and install it backwards to provide heat?  In theory, yes, but you will have a lot of problems.  First, most of those units are factory set to prevent them from trying to cool to a temperature less than 55F. 

That means if it is colder than 55F outside, it won't provide heat.If you override this feature (search for controllers that can turn a window A/C unit into a walk-in cooler controller), the next problem will be when the air temperature is under 40F.   To get heat to move, the cold surface of an A/C unit must be less then the air it is pulling heat from.  So if it is 38F outside, the refrigerant must be around 30F.  This is below freezing so moisture in the air will freeze on the coil.  Real heat pumps have a defrost cycle to deal with this.  Your window unit will just freeze solid and no longer provide heat.Again, in theory it would work but you would need to know the various problems to look for to keep it running.Written First let's talk about how air conditioners work.  The vapor-compression refrigeration cycle is a process that works via a chemical refrigerant that carries heat from one part of the system in your air conditioner to another and then releases it. The chemical is compressed into a high pressure, extremely hot gas that is pumped into a long tube called a ‘coil’.

As the refrigerant flows through the coil, heat is extracted through a fan. inside ac unit pricesAfter it has cooled down, the gas is transformed back into a liquid state and is then passed into an expansion valve, which lowers the pressure of the chemical before pumping into the ‘evaporator’.ac unit no window requiredThe evaporator is where the chemical turns into a gas by pulling heat from the air. hvac air handling unitsAs gas absorbs the heat, the cold air produced is blown into the room.It is recommended to use an air condition as a heat pump instead of using a conventional heater. Heat pumps are becoming more popular in the eco-friendly world, especially when it comes to where and how we spend our money.A heat pump uses less electricity than a heater because conventional resistance heaters convert the electricity into heat.

This means heat pumps are far more energy efficient.If you are still curious about the functions of air conditioners, check out our blog to find out what's inside! Written Air conditioners can be used as a heating units but only if they have heat pump. If not, when your air conditioner reaches the room temperature it'll simply stop blowing air and go in "sleep" mode. The heating and cooling systems might cost a bi more, but they surely are a great investment.Premier air conditioning services in Miami - Masseus CoolingWritten It’s a relative phenomenon. If your room temperature is below twenty degrees Celsius, then, of course, an air conditioner operating at thirty degrees Celsius will make your room warmer. It’s not warm in actual terms but when relativity intervenes, it will work as a warmer. For more information and professional assistance, you may refer to Act Fast Electrical & Air Conditioning; they will assist you with all-world’s reliability.Ductless Mini Split Multi Zone Types of Ductless Multi Zone Air ConditionersThe Ductless Multi-zone Mini Split Air Conditioners allow you to enjoy ideal levels of comfort in the rooms you use most.

Each room (zone) operates independently with it's our wireless/wired remote control. People in different rooms – the kitchen, master bedroom, or living room – can enjoy temperature settings that make each room most comfortable. Plus you have the option of not heating or cooling rooms that are not being used. If you’re looking for a complete comfort solution for several different rooms, the multi-zone system is the right choice. The system is flexible enough to conform to a particular cooling and heating need and offers numerous different indoor unit combinations.Very few of us are lucky enough to live in an area where it’s gloriously warm and sunny all year round. So if we’ve doled out hundreds (or even thousands) on an air conditioning unit to keep us comfortable during the summer months, it surely isn’t asking too much that it is also able to keep us warm during the winter months right? Especially if we’re looking to tighten our purse strings. Boilers are not only expensive to purchase and install but they are obscenely expensive to maintain so choosing between an air conditioning unit and a heater should be a difficult one if you live in an area where the amount of cold days are equidistant to the amount of hot days.

But that’s before you factor into the equation the fact that many air conditioning units can actually be used as space heaters too. But how does a device built to extract hot air from a room also provide heat? The answer is actually quite simple. In scientific parlance, the term ‘heat pump’ refers to a device that moves heat from one location to another location and by this definition, an air conditioner (and by extension even a refrigerator) is a heat pump as it’s used (traditionally) to create a temperate atmosphere by moving heat around. Technically, any device that can potentially be used to provide heating and cooling to the same space is considered a heat pump and as the name suggests, this means that any heat pump can be used as a heater. The basic scientific principal is almost identical to the way in which the air conditioner works its cooling ‘magic’, only in this instance, the cycle is being reversed. To understand the basics, you really need to get your head around the ‘vapour-compression refrigeration cycle’, a principal which is the same whether your air conditioner is the size of a coffee table or a small car.

The process works via a chemical refrigerant that carries heat from one part of the system to another and then releases it. First the chemical is compressed into a high pressure, intensely hot gas that is then pumped into a long tube called a ‘coil’. As the refrigerant (most likely a chemical called ‘Freon’) flows through the coil and heat is extracted through a fan. After it has cooled down, the gas is transformed back into a liquid state and is then passed into an expansion valve, which lowers the pressure of the chemical before pumping into the ‘evaporator’. Effectively another coil, the evaporator is where the chemical turns into a gas by pulling heat from the air. As gas absorbs the heat, the cold air produced is blown into the room. It is essentially a complicated but efficient way of transferring heat from the inside to the outside.With the addition of a reversing valve, the flow of energy can be reversed, effectively transforming the air conditioner into a heater!

Air conditioning units that are able to do this will have a specific ‘heating mode‘. When this mode is engaged, the flow of coolant shifts direction so that the hot coils become cold and the cold coils become hot. Whereas when it’s in standard mode, the cold air gets pumped into the room and the warm air gets expelled outside, when heating mode is engaged, the warm air gets pumped into the room and the cold air gets expelled. For two reasons really – the economic and the environmental (as well as the obvious extra space). A heat pump will generally use less electricity than a heater because conventional resistance heaters actually convert the electricity itself into heat. A heat pump though is taking advantage of natural processes so the electricity used to operate it is only used to power the individual components in the device, not create the heat. This means heat pumps are far more energy efficient. Heat pumps are becoming more popular as we become more environmentally conscious and tighter fisted when it comes to where and how we spend our money.

There are factors to keep in mind however if you’re considering jumping on the bandwagon. For one, even portable heat pumps need to be vented outside so there is always some form of ‘installation’ or ‘assembly’ required and even in heating mode, the air is still being ‘conditioned’ which means the humidity will still be removed from the air (so you’ll need to empty the ‘condensation tank’ on occasion). Also a heat pump will not be as effective as a conventional heater if the temperature of the room is too low (below 45 fahrenheit) as it’s less efficient to move heat when temperatures are close to freezing. Of course if your unit is installed properly many of these issues will be circumvented entirely.  means that you’ll have an experienced, thoughtful staff on hand to show you how to operate your system and what to do if there are any problems with it. So is it sensible to use your air conditioning unit as a heater? Absolutely, but make sure you do your research first!