During hot weather, freon, a refrigerant, is kept quite cold in an interior coil. The freon absorbs heat from warm air passing through the coil, the cool air is circulated through the house by the fan. The heated refrigerant is pumped to the outdoor coil and heat is dissipated into the atmosphere. To heat the interior, during the cold season, the process is reversed. Refrigerant absorbs heat from the outside at the outdoor coil, and is pumped into the building interior where cool air is heated at the indoor fan coil.
Heat pumps are cost effective compared to other types of cooling and heating systems.
First, heat pumps accomplish two functions, heating and cooling, thus eliminating the need for two different heating and cooling systems. Second, moving or pumping available heat into or out of buildings is much more energy efficient than creating new heat by burning fuel. Electrical power is only used to run the blower motor and the compressor. Third, since fuel is not used at the site there is no need for a ventilation system and the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning is nil. The heat pump used at Desert House has a third function not found on most heat pump systems.