this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2026
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Is a heating element actually 100% efficient, though?
Some of the energy is converted to light.
100% of the energy is converted to light, its just in the IR spectrum.
Unless u feed the heater with AC power then you are also generating magnetic fields/radio waves....but those are also just photons (light) with a very long wavelengh.....
Space heaters mostly heat by convective heating, where the heat energy is transferred from the element to the air molecules around it. This doesn't involve infrared radiation (though in practice it is involved because any object above 0 K radiates infrared).
You reminded me of a certain video (or videos?) on quantum fields that I watched a few months back. Truly fascinating subject.
Which unless it goes out through a window would eventually be turned into heat anyway, right?
Yeah it's still thermal radiation, us being able to see it isn't a disqualifier :p
Heat pumps move heat from outside to inside, and they use less energy than the amount that is brought into the insulated area, resulting in efficiency numbers over 100%. (less energy used than the amount brought inside was used to bring the inside energy levels up)
https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/a-heat-pump-is-more-than-100-efficient-yes-really-heres-how/