A heat pump is like a central air conditioning system, with an outdoor compressor and an indoor distribution system.

       Here's the difference:

       a heat pump can be switched into reverse.

During the summer, it takes heat from inside your home and dumps it outdoors, keeping things cool and confortable. When the heating season comes, it does just the opposite, picking up heat from outdoors, and delivering it indoors.

Strange as it sounds, all air contains some heat, and if the heat is there, a heat pump can move it.

Since a heat pump moves heat (it doesn't produce heat), it's efficiency is determined by the outdoor temperature. Most pumps have built-in resistance coils that will start to kick in at about 30 degrees. These provide conventional resistance heat just like you'd get from baseboard heaters, and they take some of the load off the heat pump's compressor.

In the relatively mild climate that we have in Oregon heat pumps make economic sense. The cost to put in a heat pump is higher than other forms of heat, but in the long run you will save money on electricity. A heat pump also is an air conditioner, so you have cooling as well as heating capabilities.