So, assume a compressor of some sort that compresses outside air into a copper coil that runs inside a house, with the other end going through the house’s envelope again and releasing the air back outside, with enough resistance (likely through some sort of expander that recuperates as much energy as possible from the still-pressurized exhaust) that the air stays under high pressure as it runs through the coil. Now, the compressed air going through the pipe will be hot, so it’ll transfer heat to the air inside the house. When it expands back at the end, it’ll be colder than it was when it got in.
Barring a misunderstanding on my part, we now have a theoretical heat pump that needs no specific refrigerant and thus avoids all the issues we have with those. It’s also a simple design, so there’s no way I’m the first one to come up with it. Why do we build heat pumps that operate on specific fluids within closed circuits?
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For the simple fact that these fluids can absorb and distribute far more heat than air.
Ultimately the efficiency of the unit depends on how much heat energy it can transfer from one location to the other. By using a fluid that has a high specific heat capacity, the transfer rate is increased significantly.
The fluid used in heat pumps has over 100X the specific heat of air, even compressed air. Which means it has over 100X the ability to transfer heat.
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