I live in Arizona. Almost everyone has a heat pump. We use it to air condition - we pump the heat out into the environment, not in for heating (although some of us have reversible heat pumps so we can pump heat in during the rare time swe need it). People claim we are damaging the environment with our heat pumps.

Yes, heat pumps are more efficient at moving heat around than just using electricity through a resistor.

But keep in mind, they displace the energy cost - the electricity has to be delivered (which involves energy loss), and it has to be generated (which involves a lot more energy loss).

And while, if the weather is right, it can be delivered from so-called renewable sources (meaning, intermittent, unreliable wind and solar), those sources need backup at great expense. Texas learned this the hard way - they had inadequate backup in their neetwork to handle the shortfalls.