[elcano]

Heating under usual winter conditions would consume more energy than cooling under practical conditions. Yes.

But that's very different than claiming than cooling is more efficient than heating. In A/Cs the ratio of energy (in the form of heat) removed to energy consumed is very low, around 10-15%.

In furnaces the ratio of energy added to energy consumed is around 90%, which was pretty good until the emergence of heat pumps. There almost all the energy consumed is added to the output in addition to all the energy removed from the other side. That's why the efficiency in heat pumps is beyond 200%.

In summary, no. Cooling is not more efficient than heating. But given the temperature differential when cooling the energy consumption is usually higher.

[triceratops]

> In A/Cs the ratio of energy (in the form of heat) removed to energy consumed is very low, around 10-15%.

Why is that?

Obviously I'm referring to efficiency in practice. In theory, heating and cooling should be equally efficient for a perfect heat pump, right?