Heat pumps are powered by electricity and transfer heat using refrigerant and can provide heat all year round. You don't necessarily have to have separate systems to heat your home. Heat pumps don't burn fossil fuels like furnaces, which makes them environmentally friendly.
Heat pumps are not heat creators. Heat Pumps redistribute heat and use a refrigerant that circulates the air to a compressor that transfers it to heat.
Types of heat pumps include air-source and ground-source. Air-source heat pumps transfers heat between both indoor air and outdoor air, and are mostly used for residential heating and cooling.
Ground-source heat pumps, often called geothermal heat pumps, transfer heat between inside air and the ground outside.
The major components in heat pumps are outdoor unit, indoor unit, refrigerant, compressor, reversing valve and expansion valve.