This persistent myth just needs to go away. People use heat pumps all over Scandinavia, including in the arctic circle. They are extremely popular there. They were early adopters of this technology there decades ago.
There are two popular varieties:
- Ground source heat pumps. Those work pretty much anywhere; just dig below the perma frost and you are good to go on the northern tip of Canada, Alaska, Norway, or wherever. Works great, ground temperatures tend to be very stable and it actually goes up the deeper you dig.
- Air source heat pumps. The expensive ones still work okish at extreme temperatures like -25-ish degrees C. Which is a reason these are actually more popular than ground sources even in places (e.g. most of Scandinavia) that reliably get such temperatures each winter.
There are two popular varieties:
- Ground source heat pumps. Those work pretty much anywhere; just dig below the perma frost and you are good to go on the northern tip of Canada, Alaska, Norway, or wherever. Works great, ground temperatures tend to be very stable and it actually goes up the deeper you dig.
- Air source heat pumps. The expensive ones still work okish at extreme temperatures like -25-ish degrees C. Which is a reason these are actually more popular than ground sources even in places (e.g. most of Scandinavia) that reliably get such temperatures each winter.