A heat pump extracts thermal energy from, say, air. Electricity is not converted into heat, but used to create a temperature difference (one part of the system

A heat pump extracts thermal energy from, say, air. Electricity is not converted into heat, but used to create a temperature difference (one part of the system gets colder, the other gets hotter). This is vastly more efficient than using resistive heating elements. Such a system can appear to be more than 100% (up to around 400% [1]) efficient, if you look at the electricity going in, and the heat coming out. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump