Heat Pumps
A heat pump is a thermodynamic heating/refrigerating system used to transfer heat. Cooling and heating heat pumps are designed to utilize the heat extracted at a low temperature and the heat rejected at a higher temperature for cooling and heating functions, respectively.
The household refrigerator can provide a simple analogy. A refrigerator is actually a one-way heat pump that transfers heat from the food storage compartment to the room outside. In so doing, the inside of the refrigerator becomes progressively cooler as heat is taken out. In a closed room, the heat coming out of the refrigerator would make the room warmer. The larger the refrigerator is, the greater the potential amount of heat there is to transfer out. If the refrigerator door were open to the outdoors, there would be an almost unlimited amount of heat that could be transferred to the inside of a dwelling. Thus it is possible to design a refrigeration system to transfer heat from the cold outdoors (or any other cold reservoir, such as water or the ground) to the insides of a building (or any medium that it is desired to heat).
Heat pumps can move heat energy between any form of matter, but they are typically designed to utilize the common heating and cooling media, i.e., air or water.
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