How Does a Heat Pump Work in the Winter? In the winter, heat pumps absorb heat from the outside air and use it to warm your home. They use a relatively small amount of electricity to run, making them less expensive to operate than a natural gas furnace.

A heat pump uses electricity to provide both heating and cooling to a building. These appliances are efficient at transferring heat from one place to another, depending on where it's needed. ​In the winter, a heat pump provides heating by extracting heat from outside a building and moving it inside.