Thermodynamics won’t allow anything to have an efficiency of 100% because some energy will be converted to heat. What about electric irons and pretty much any other heating equipment that has a working principle revolving around losing energy to heat
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So it really depends on how you measure.
Efficiency is “the ratio between *usable* work done compared to the input energy”
So while this is a real thing that we can objectively measure. What you consider “usable” is something that you get to decide. (I would like to point out we have plenty of standards in place though to make sure it’s somewhat consistent)
So going back to talking about an electric iron. You are correct that 100% of the energy that goes into that will end up as heat. But I suspect that the only “usable” part is the heat that goes into unwrinkling your clothes.
So there’s all the heat that ends up *not* doing that that could be considered waste heat. And therefore you can have an efficiency of less than 100% I have no idea what the exact numbers are though. Can’t find too much literature about it.
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