Mains power voltage drop to reduce usage?

Or more heat.

My definition of efficiency is energy efficiency, not heat efficiency. A resistive space heater is 100% heat efficient; nothing goes up a flue. A good gas furnace can be "90% efficient." But a heat pump can be 3x as energy efficient as either, for the same amount of hot air or hot water. We pay for energy.

Agreed.

...

I also agree.

From your earlier post it wasn't obvious to me what point you were making. It is now.

kw

Yes, you can blame Mr Carnot for that :-).

For best mechanical (and electric) efficiency, you should have as much temperature _difference_ between the hot and cold side (measured in Kelvins) as possible.You should maximize the hot side temperature and minimize the cold side temperature.

In a coal fired power station, you can have hit side temperatures over

Equally important is the cold side temperature, in cold climate near the sea. you cold get about 0 C or 273 K, but in hot climate with air cooling towers, the cold side temperature can be over 40 C,

Practical efficiencies for coal fired plants can be over 40 %, while nuclear plants are above 30 %.

Those of us with long memories and who lived in the NYC area recall the original Indian Point nuclear power plant (they later added #2 and #3) had a fossil fueled additional boiler to yes, raise the temperature of the steam even hgher...

I would suggest adding procurement, installation, and ongoing repair and maintenance costs. Heat pumps work well enough in warmish places, but are far more complex and failure-prone than say a gas furnace.

War story: Some decades ago, my kid sister and her late first husband built a house in Tampa, Florida, heated and cooled by a heat pump system. Which never worked, and the local HVAC outfit that provided and installed it expected her to pay for more or less complete replacement, using money she didn't have. Which is when I heard about it.

Apparently, a tiny bit of water had remained in or gotten into the freon system, where it soon turned into a collection of toxic fluorine based compounds and acids (a well known consequence of having any water in a freon refrigeration system), which will have pretty much destroyed everything in contact with those acids.

And I do mean toxic; this is not exaggerated. Think Hydrofluoric Acid.

But this HVAC system never worked, and so it cannot have been caused by anything kid sister had done or not done, but the local HVAC company was not budging.

So I had her contact the manufacturer of the heat pump system and tell her long sad story. The manufacturer investigated, was appalled, and just took over. The system was totally replaced, and then it worked quite well.

One assumes that the local HVAC company had done this to other customers before. I don't know the fate of that local HVAC outfit, but it cannot have been pretty. Hope they went bankrupt.

Joe Gwinn

mandag den 14. november 2022 kl. 21.16.19 UTC+1 skrev snipped-for-privacy@downunder.com:

the coal fired plant, nearly 25 years old is 47% on just generating electricity it also does district heating so it is into the 90s percent with an ideal mix

Leaking water I don't care about, it's free, if it's big enough I see water. Leaking gas I smell. Shorting electricity I smell.

You believe the internet. Ok.

Some of us have brains.

Why? So you don't waste 20 cents on a new battery?

Try NiMH. They last 10 years no matter how quick it uses them.

There must be some kind of heat exchanger system they could use. Or another use for the warm gases. Heat the neighbouring village with steam or water?

And you trust the justice system? Let's say you and your neighbour have a dispute over something. Your neighbour sneaks over to your house in the middle of the night and does something to your meter which acts in your favour (or in the case of a smart meter he could do it remotely). The electricity board and the court will probably say you're stealing electricity. At least with the old meters you could have a security camera.

Not in the UK.

With a heat pump, they can. Imagine a boost converter.

If... if... if... all your ranting is useless and pointless here. Here, you either have a smart meter, or no electricity. You can get mad at them all you want. Argue all you want. Pointless, it is done and forgotten.

I do not live in the UK.

Not free here, and sometimes you do not see it.

Sometimes. Some thought like you, now they are dead.

But not you :-P

To know if that battery is better than others, or to know if the clock is going bad. And because I like to do it.

Guess why this is not massively used.