Reverse cycle air conditioning?

[waldomeyer]

This concept appeals to me,not sure if thats exactly what its called but i think thats it.Basically the hot air you feel coming off an ac unit is used to preheat the hot water/heating primaries and the boiler or immersion then tops it up as I understand it? Never heard of the concept until a holiday in thailand where I noticed all the resorts hot storage cylinders were piped up to the ac units.The cylinders are direct,so no heating primaries involved but I assume the heat transfer from the ac unit is via a primary coil of sorts? Anyone with any knowledge on this subject?

 

[Puddle]

Not into air con but it makes sense the ammount of hot air that is wasted from these units
If therory office units/areas could supply hot water for domestic areas
The green movement has stoped walking and just started to jog

 

[ecowarm]

ASHP's or Air source heat pumps can take the heat from outside or inside a building and move it to another source i.e. hot water.