this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 260 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Resistive heaters still suck though because Heat pumps give you 200-400% efficiency. So heating wise, “100%” still less than maximally efficient.

(Not a violation of thermodynamics btw. Heat pumps use electricity to move heat energy that already exists, so the electric power in is often significantly smaller than the heat coming out of the device)

[–] wander1236@sh.itjust.works 402 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Did someone say heat pumps?

[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 161 points 1 month ago (5 children)

I'm so happy this man nerded out about heat pumps for a few hours.

But now, all I see is inferior heaters.

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 68 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It's the burden of knowledge

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[–] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 month ago

And this one is….. 1600 watts. Surely this “large” room heater will be……. Siiiixxxxteen hundred watts.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Who is that? I love heat pumps too and would happily listen to someone talk about them for hours

[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 48 points 1 month ago (1 children)

boy are you one of today's lucky 10,000!

[–] EvenOdds@lemmy.zip 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What do you mean lucky 10,000?

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Search YouTube or revanced or whatever other free service for Technology connections, also the alt channel Technology Connextras.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago
[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

I watched his video on renewable energy and it was awesome. That ending was very unexpected but he killed it. Thanks for the info

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] cenzorrll@piefed.ca 44 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Bro's got multiple, hour+ long, videos about various types of heat pumps.

[–] YellowParenti@lemmy.wtf 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And somehow im riveted. Doesn't feel like droning on. I wish I could communicate like him.

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[–] Orygin@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hours of videos about dishwashers too

He videoed about dishwashers so hard he's got his own line of dish detergent now.

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[–] UninvestedCuriosity@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

This man taught us that heaters are indeed about as efficient as you can get in turning energy into heat through a little thing called resistance.

[–] Custard@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

Hey that's the guy I see once a year at Christmas time!

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 month ago

His videos are why I got a heat pump water heater instead of a standard one when mine died. I figure in summer I can hook the exhaust duct up to my hvac and get a bit of free air conditioning out of it, since I don't have AC yet. Tiny extra bonus piped straight to my bedroom.

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[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 64 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Resistive heaters still suck though

  • Resistive heaters are much more portable and flexible. (edit: and quiet)
  • Resistive heaters are a viable backup when heat pumps fail in extremely cold weather.
  • Resistive heaters are less money upfront for if you only have to use them occasionally.

One is not directly beneath the other. Both have their place.

[–] AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fair enough, do we need to extend this heater solidarity to combustibles as well?

I mean technically they’re infinitely electrically efficient if you don’t use electricity to start them lol

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 20 points 1 month ago

For niche cases like when you're on a camping trip and made a campfire

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 16 points 1 month ago (5 children)

They're not 100% either, they make noises and emit light. That's loss

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[–] SpongyAneurysm@feddit.org 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Strictly speaking that's not efficiency, but a coefficient of performance.

And funny enough the work energy doesn't even have to be electricity. It's actually mechanical energy, that is required and you could even power a heat pump with a steam or diesel engine.

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[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 77 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Every electric device is a heater. Some just do other things too.

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 57 points 1 month ago (14 children)

A brushless motor only converts ~5% of its input to heat. That's low enough that you can reasonably call it a side effect.

Now, a computer, that's a heater that happens to produce math as a side effect. 100% of its input ends up as heat.

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[–] antsu@discuss.tchncs.de 44 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm not well-versed on this topic, but doesn't the AC frequency cause alternating fields in the heating element, making it vibrate slightly? If that's correct, then you're losing an incredibly stupidly tiny amount of energy as sound too.

[–] call_me_xale@lemmy.zip 53 points 1 month ago

Even sound energy eventually ends up as heat, though!

[–] Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz 16 points 1 month ago (4 children)

And that satisfying glow is losses as light, which will do some heating, but not as efficiently

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There's a whole class of electric heater that do this intentionally. Radiant heaters are awesome for outdoor patios and other spaces like uninsulated garages where you care more about heating surfaces than the air itself.

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[–] edinbruh@feddit.it 37 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Isn't some energy still dissipated as light instead of heat?

[–] Noved@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Which travels to a location, hits it and is eventually converted to heat.

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 33 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Isn't there also visible, non heating light coming off them.?

[–] Bysmuth@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I think that light also becomes heat again once it strikes a surface

[–] scratchee@feddit.uk 15 points 1 month ago

Mostly, but not entirely.

Most thing you struggle to approach anywhere near 100% efficient, heating is a bit easier in that you can get a lot closer, but you’ll still hit limits before reaching 100%.

Saying inefficiencies are lost as heat is really a lazy simplification, inefficiencies are lost as anything It just turns out that 95% of anything is heat, from entropies perspective.

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[–] Deconceptualist@leminal.space 31 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Yep, every electric device is a toaster, some are just super inefficient at it.

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[–] cass27@lemmy.zip 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Noise would be a small but non-zero form of heat loss that shouldn't contribute to temperature increase

[–] dz2@sopuli.xyz 21 points 1 month ago

Noise would turn in to heat as it’s absorbed, so it’s just heat with extra steps. Same deal with lights

[–] spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 month ago

The entropy machine has a 100% efficiency

[–] starik@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] weastie@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yup, that little buzz / hum is technically lost energy

[–] bebabalula@feddit.dk 24 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Well, if you want to go all “technically” on this, then that sound technically dissipates as heat when it is absorbed by the interior of the room.

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[–] 33550336@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

Even if the heater's energy partially is not wasted by a sound, it certainly is by generating magnetic field.

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 month ago (8 children)

A heat pump will drop to 100% efficiency in cold enough weather.

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[–] village604@adultswim.fan 16 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Is a heating element actually 100% efficient, though?

[–] TheFogan@programming.dev 42 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Some of the energy is converted to light.

[–] einfach_orangensaft@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 month ago (2 children)

100% of the energy is converted to light, its just in the IR spectrum.

Unless u feed the heater with AC power then you are also generating magnetic fields/radio waves....but those are also just photons (light) with a very long wavelengh.....

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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Software engineers fixing a prod-down bug on Friday afternoons operate at 100%

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[–] Tiger_Man_@szmer.info 15 points 1 month ago

induction losses:

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