what kind of heating is a heat pump
Heat pump Heat energy naturally transfers from warmer places to colder spaces. However, a heat pump can reverse this process, by absorbing heat from a cold space and releasing it to a warmer one. Heat is not conserved in this process and requires some amount of external energy, such as electricity. In heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, the term heat pump usually refers to vapor-compression refrigeration devices optimized for high efficiency in both directions of thermal energy transfer. These heat pumps can be reversible, and work in either direction to provide heating or cooling to the internal space.
Coefficient of performance The coefficient of performance or COP (sometimes CP or CoP) of a heat pump, refrigerator or air conditioning system is a ratio of useful heating or cooling provided to work required.[1][2] Higher COPs equate to lower operating costs. The COP usually exceeds 1, especially in heat pumps, because, instead of just converting work to heat (which, if 100% efficient, would be a COP_hp of 1), it pumps additional heat from a heat source to where the heat is required. For complete systems, COP calculations should include energy consumption of all power consuming auxiliaries. COP is highly dependent on operating conditions, especially absolute temperature and relative temperature between sink and system, and is often graphed or averaged against expected conditions.[3]