Sales are growing so quickly that some installers wonder whether heat pumps could even wipe out the demand for new air conditioners in a few years and put a significant dent in the number of natural gas furnaces.
Sales are growing so quickly that some installers wonder whether heat pumps could even wipe out the demand for new air conditioners in a few years and put a significant dent in the number of natural gas furnaces.
A heatpump is an AC, definitionally. There is no major difference for a 9000 BTU heat pump and a 9000 BTU AC in terms of capability to cool. They both work through using gas to move heat from the inside to the outside of the building.
A heat pump can just run in reverse, and move heat form outside the building inside.
A mini-split is a version of a heat pump where it has its own head and its own radiator, that are split. this is opposed to central AC.
Most central AC area also split systems. The evaporator is indoors and the compressor/condenser unit sits outside, and are connected by pipes.
The only difference is that they are ducted to the entire house, where a mini-split generally only cools a single room.
And yo can get central type units that have a reversing valve which allows them to cool the house in the summer and heat it in the winter. Though those have historically been a lot harder to find. There are more coming on the market in the last few years.