Would heating a space up to 50c require the same amount of energy as cooling it down to -50?

Question

Lets assume we have a 0.5 square meter box, sitting in an envoirement that is 0c.

Would it take the same amount of energy to heat the box up to 50c as it would take to cool that box down to -50c?

Assuming the exact same box is in the exact same location with the exact same surroundings

In: 6

Answer 1

Contrary to the other answers here, cooling a space down by 50C would in general require less energy then heating the same space by 50C. This is because a heat pump normally operates at 200-300% efficiency, that is, a Joule of energy spent on operating a heat pump allows to pump away about 2-3 Joules of heat away. Conversely, there is no such efficiency shortcut for heating – you have to provide every Joule of added heat. Unless, of course, the heating is also performed by a heat pump, then it’s roughly the same situation as cooling. Such heating systems aren’t very widespread, but they are available.