How does a heat pump blow hot air in the winter and cold air in the summer?
Heat pumps are basically air conditioners with electric valves to enable them to reverse their operation for summer and winter. Have you ever felt the air a window air conditioner blows outside? That hot air is heat that has been removed from the inside of your home or office. What if you were to remove that window AC and reinstall it backwards? It would blow hot air inside and cold air outside. Even when it is freezing outside there is still heat out there. A heat pump absorbs that heat and pumps it inside. Unfortunately it is still cold outside so the outdoor unit on a heat pump usually freezes up in the winter time. Once the outdoor unit determines there is enough ice on it the controls automatically switch it into cooling mode just like in the summer. Now it blows cool air inside and heats up the outdoor coil just enough to melt the ice. This procedure usually occurs every 90 minutes or so of run time in the winter and lasts less than 10 minutes. Some people think the heat pump is
