A heat pump cools in summer and heats for most of the year off electricity rather than gas. In an Airdrie winter it is normally paired with a gas furnace that takes over on the coldest days, so you get one system covering both jobs without giving up heat when it hits minus thirty.
A heat pump moves heat instead of burning fuel to make it. In summer it moves heat out of the house, which is exactly what an air conditioner does. In winter it runs the other way and moves heat into the house, and it keeps doing that well below freezing.
The honest part is what happens on the coldest days. Cold climate models keep working a long way down, but there is a point where a gas furnace is simply the better tool, which is why most installs around here are a heat pump and a furnace together rather than a heat pump alone. That covers the shoulder seasons, which in Alberta is most of the year, and leaves the furnace for the deep cold.
