A heat pump system can meet your heating and cooling needs while saving you a lot of money. But before you invest in one, check to see if you have any home warranty coverage on your duct system or your HVAC equipment, or talk with your contractor about financing options.

A typical heat pump system looks a lot like a central air conditioning system, with an outdoor unit and an indoor unit connected by a refrigerant line filled with thermal energy-transporting fluid. The compressor in the outdoor unit presses the fluid, which is then pumped through a series of aluminum fins and coils that release or collect heat, and into your home. The blower in the indoor unit then circulates the warm or cool air through your ducts and out of vents placed throughout your home.

Maximizing Energy Efficiency: How to Choose the Right Heat Pump System for Your Home

In the winter, the reversing valve in the system changes the direction of the liquid flow so that it absorbs heat from the air outside and pumps it into your home. Then the reversing valve changes directions again to extract that heat from your home and return it back to the outdoors.

In cold climates, supplemental energy is required to extract the heat from the air, but even with that extra effort, heat pumps save a lot of energy and carbon emissions over other systems in moderate climates. In fact, select Mitsubishi Electric units with Hyper-Heating INVERTER technology can provide 100 percent heating capacity down to -13deg F without using supplemental fuel.