

You just change the definition of your isolated system. It takes less energy to move heat from one place to another than it does to excite matter to release energy. For resistive or combustion heating, the isolated system is your house, plus the gas if using gas heat. For heat pumps, you include the rest of the world.
As an aside, heat pumps are generally considered good when they reach 300% efficiency, i.e., when every watt of energy expended adds 3 watts of heat to your home.


I have a coworker that constantly talks like this, has little good to say about current or past partners, and makes remarks like my decisions are because my wife would be angry if I did things differently. I’m sorry if you treat your spouse like a sex object, a source of money, or a money sink, but that’s on your relationship and choices and has nothing to do with me or mine. To be frank, I think this poster fits him well.