The heat pump extracts ambient heat from the outdoor air and moves it indoors
Until just a couple of years ago, I had no idea that a heat pump is a style of temperature control. It sounds more like some type of domestic hot water heater or a swimming pool heater. It also seems as if it would only provide heat. When my husband and I retired and moved south, we learned that our new home is outfitted with an electric heat pump. Since we’d both grown up and spent our whole lives in the far north, heating was always the main focus. We needed a furnace or a boiler or some type of equipment powerful enough to handle sub zero temperatures for more than half the year. We never gave much thought to air conditioning. In our new location, cooling is the priority. We only need heating for a couple of months out of the year and the temperature rarely drops below forty. The amazing thing about a heat pump is that it combines heating and cooling capability into a single piece of equipment. Having one unit instead of two separate ones frees up space and eliminates extra maintenance needs. Another benefit is the elimination of the combustion process. A heat pump doesn’t burn fossil fuels or generate heat in any way. It strictly takes advantage of existing heat and moves it from one place to another. In cooling mode, it acts like an air conditioner, using refrigerant to take heat from the inside and convey it outside. Switching to heating mode reverses the process. The heat pump extracts ambient heat from the outdoor air and moves it indoors. There’s no fear of hot surfaces, fumes, greenhouse gases or carbon monoxide. The system is clean, safe, very quiet and effective at reducing excess humidity.