Education: How Heat Pumps Work

The electric heat pump heats your home by moving existing heat from one area to another. An outdoor coil absorbs heat which exists in the outside air and transfers it via refrigerant lines to the indoor coil, where it is released to warm your home. Electric heat pumps contain auxiliary (back-up) electric resistance heaters which work with the heat pump when the outdoor temperature goes below the balance point (the point where your home's heating requirement is greater than the heat collected by the electric heat pump alone.)

In the summer an electric heat pump cools your home by removing heat from the indoor air and transferring that heat to the outdoor air. This heat is extracted from the home by passing indoor air across a refrigerant coil in the indoor unit. The heat is then carried by lines to the outdoor unit, where it is released to the outside air. The cooling cycle continues until the indoor temperature reaches the thermostat setting.