Yes, and that's very nice if you have a heat pump. I suspect people with heat pumps use them for heat. It'd be weird if they didn't.

But, to restate my previous comment: if you have a natural gas furnace and a GPU, but no heat pump, and are deciding which to use for heat, it doesn't matter how efficient the heat pump you don't have is.

If you own your own home and have the capital to get a heat pump, great, do it. But a lot of people rent. They can't just swap out their furnace for a heat pump.

Here in the US, I don't think these are in common use. At least, I've never seen one in person. Are they used much wherever you are? They do seem like an interesting idea. Here's a US Dept of Energy page about them: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/absorption-heat-pumps

I have a geothermal heat pump. I am not in the US (3 phase 400V electricity is common here). I'd suppose nowadays they should be pretty standard. Some heat pumps also work both ways, e.g. they can heat and cool.

As an extra benefit the heat pumps have lower maintenance, risk.

(responding here, but applies to all currently at this level)

Ahh, now I see where there might be confusion. Heat pumps that operate on electricity are increasingly common in the US. Most of them are air-to-air, but some are ground-source. What I'm claiming are rare-to-non-existent are residential heat pumps that operate directly off of natural gas, using an ammonia absorption process, with no electricity involved.

Arguably 'freemint' was saying that it's more efficient to generate electricity centrally using natural gas and then distribute this electricity to power heat pumps than to burn natural gas for heat at each site. Yes, likely. My surprise was that I thought he was claiming that non-electric natural gas powered heat pumps were currently available to residential consumers. I knew this style exists (see the link I gave above) but I've never seen one in operation.

Interesting. Maybe we can use them on Mars.

From what i have heard it varies a lot on a state by state basis. I suppressed my urge to look up heat pump statistics because frankly i should work on more important things. Just uhhmmm please don't act like i am supposed to research for you unpaid. I might fall for it and hate myself for it later.

Depends on where you live. The rural area where I am have a nearly 100% install of heat pump or geothermal units on any and all new builds.