bad idea: put a space heater and a portable air conditioner next to each other, turn both on, and see which one wins
@Felthry I'm placing bets on heater.
@starkatt I don't even know what would constitute winning. Last-appliance-standing?
@Felthry Room temperature goes up or down.
Heater would win that every time, assuming equal thermal power
Air conditioners produce a staggering amount of heat as a byproduct of cooling, and an appreciable amount of that heat radiates into the room being cooled.
All a heater has to do is what all other electrical appliances try their best to avoid: allow that energy to leak out as heat
There's a lot of reasons for that, too! First being that it's (relative to other options) basically brand new tech that only started gaining popularity in the past 10 years.
It's also only as good as the climate allows it to be. A good heat pump can make a difference of +/- ~30 degrees from outside temp, which means it's not very useful in super hot places like Arizona, nor in super cold places like Minnesota
@Felthry @mawr FWIW in all the new construction, I was installing split units for AC and resistive heaters for... heat.