Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411 Goodman Heat pumps are used to generate heating because less high-grade energy is required for their operation than appears in the released heat. Much of the energy for heating stems from the external environment, and only a fraction emerges from electricity (or another high-grade energy source required to run a compressor). In electrically powered heat pumps, the heat transferred can be three or four times above the electrical power consumed, giving the system a coefficient of performance (COP) of 3 or 4, rather than a COP of 1 for a conventional electrical resistance heater, wherein all heat is produced from input electrical energy.