I often see my HVAC cooling when the set-point temperature is actually _higher_ than the outside temperature. Logically, the house is a heat generator, it makes sense physically. The roof is black, etc.
It would offer a good number of benefits if the system could outright open a duct to the outdoor air, and suck it in whenever the local outside temperature is within the range requested by the user. People who are into optimizing energy use (they exist) can go even further and pre-cool their house during the night in summer.
For this to work, all you need a pusher fan, no refrigeration at all. There might be some pressurization problems, like, you may need a duct both for the intake and outlet. Also might require another filter... but air quality would improve significantly.
This is a really "dumb" idea, but it's perfectly in-line with all the new ideas being thrown out there. The new ideas just tend to throw in an additional heat storage mechanism, like a water tank (in the article). You can get a lot more efficiency gains by saving the night's cold in a tank and using it through the day. But on a more basic level, you can pump straight into the house when the conditions are right.