[rednek]

A heat pumo uses a compressor to compress freon (or similar gas). The byproduct of compression is heat and it has to go somewhere. A heat pump captures the “heat byproduct” and passes it thru a heat exchanger to heat your home. To cool - the compressed gas is expanded (physics) and cooled and then passed thru a heat exchanger. Go back to school and take physics 101 before you call my explanation malarky...red

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

Ahem, waste heat????

A heat pump is a machine or device that diverts heat from one location (the ‘source’) at a lower temperature to another location (the ‘sink’ or ‘heat sink’) at a higher temperature using mechanical work or a high-temperature heat source. A heat pump can be used to provide heating or cooling. Even though the heat pump can heat, it still uses the same basic refrigeration cycle to do this. In other words a heat pump can change which coil is the condenser and which the evaporator. This is normally achieved by a reversing valve. In cooler climates it is common to have heat pumps that are designed only to provide heating.

[steve86]

I bet you write crank letters to physicists (such as my brother -- nationally known) espousing absurd alternative physical explanations for well-known physical processes.

"Waste heat" has nothing to do with the correct heat pump explanation -- heat is pumped from the inside out or the outside in. Your specious explanation implies some intrinsic energy property of the cfc can be used to heat and cool the house simply by compressing or expanding it -- that is nonsense and a good candidate for the fools' perpetual motion machine Hall of Fame.