I wish I had known about heat pump water heaters before I replaced mine about 6 years ago. Heat pumps for home heating and water heating should be mandated by building code here in mild California. It’s the perfect environment for them. Unfortunately, I use heating so infrequently during our “winter” that replacing my perfectly functional furnace is not really worth it. So, instead I started using the heat pump mode on my portable air conditioner (yes, I know, but also used infrequently) to provide just those couple of degrees of heat that I need. It’s not bad, with a COP of 2.7.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

has anyone tried flipping the portable air conditioner around so the cold side is outside on the balcony but protected from the rain, and the hot side is pointing into the house? I'm talking about the kind with the hoses.

[–] DanVctr 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think you'd end up freezing the unit, but I don't know enough about it to back up my gut feeling.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

actually it's not cold enough outside for any significant freezing to occur in southern California.