Heat pump in an air-conditioner is man’s best friend during the winter. With this pump installed in an air-conditioner, the refrigeration cycle in the air-conditioner can be reversed, where heat is produced in the room instead of cool air. This pump is normally referred to and known as a reverse cycle air conditioner. It is generally a more reliable pump as compared to electric resistance heating as this pump has higher efficiency.
Some people prefer to have a heat pump system installed in their air-conditioner, where it enables the reverse refrigeration cycle to be reversed during winter. By enabling the pump, coil changes its role to become a condenser coil that produces heat rather than being an evaporator coil that generates cool air.
This system is more popular in mild winter climates that have temperatures in the range of 4 to 13ºC. It is mainly because in places with extreme winter, the coil of the outdoor unit frozen and directly blocks the airflow over the coil, making this pump being inefficient in such circumstance. To overcome this matter, the system must be able to switch back the evaporator coil back to condenser coil temporarily regularly for the outdoor unit in order to heat and de-froze the coil. Therefore, an electric resistance heating is formed and at the same moment, the unwanted cold air from is being supplied into the room. The icing issue hence is more often being encountered in cases with lower outdoor temperatures, which make heat pumps installed replaced with natural gas or oil furnace in more extreme winter.
Some air conditioner has heat pump while some do not. However, when it comes to air conditioner with “heat” function does not necessary mean that there is a pump in that air conditioner as it might be other device like electric resistance heat.