The Vapour Compression Cycle is rather effecient, over 300% in some cases. Why couldn’t we use that to create a near limitless amount of energy by drawing heat from the atmosphere and using it to boil water to power a turbine?
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In: Engineering
Short answer: because the perpetuum mobile is not possible.
Long answer: the COP of the heat pumps is that high because there’s not much difference between the outside and inside temperatures and it’s easy to pump the energy across. But at the same time, utilising the same temperature difference is extremely inefficient because it’s small. It’s not possible to boil the water when your heating element is only 30C maximum.
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