A heat pump is a machine that transports heat from one place to another using mechanical system, where it can either produce or sink heat.
The current technology in pump systems commonly transfers heat from a low temperature region to a higher temperature region.
Appliances like refrigerators and air conditioners transfer heat from inside to the outside place while a reverse cycle pumps transfer heat from outside to the inside giving thermal comfort.
Heat pumps give an energy-efficient alternative to air conditioner and boilers in climates that require moderate heating and cooling demands.
In hot season, these types of pumps transfer the heat from the inside to the outdoor providing a chill environment in the inside.
Reversely, the pump transfers heat into the house from the outside during the cold season.
The most general pump used is air-source heat pump.
This pump exchanges heat between the outside air and your house.
High efficiency pumps can provide better cooling system than standard central air conditioners.
This eventually result less energy consumption and better cooling comfort in the hot season.
Despite of this advantage, majority of high efficiency cooling pumps has low efficiency at low temperatures, making them not usable in cold climates.
Higher efficiency pumps can be accomplished by the use of geothermal heat pumps, or known as the ground source pumps.
This system utilizes the ground as the source to transfer heat.
However, this system has high installation cost.
This disadvantage can be compensated by its low operating cost, making it worthy to be installed in long term prospect.
The operating cost is low due to the constant ground and water temperatures, unlike air temperature that varies a lot.
Another advantage of this pump compared to air-source pump is it can be used in extreme climate conditions, while the latter cannot.