[pathartl]

There are parts of the US that widely use your standard heat pump such as Florida. Here in the Midwest most single family homes use central air which is a combination of an outdoor air conditioner unit and a natural gas furnace. Heat pumps are a topic here because the natural gas furnace is just so prevalent.

There was a lot of lobbying by the natural gas companies in the 80's, so there's a pretty significant group of people that write off heat pumps not realizing that yes, fridges, freezers, air conditioners are all single-direction heat pumps.