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Temps in Phoenix dropped to mid 20's this week everyday this heatpump a goodman installed in 2007 just keeps freezing up. It runs for awhile blowing cold air last 5 minutes it gets little warm then it goes into defrost blows cold air and starts all over again. It's not able to get the house above 63 until temps come up above 35 outside. Heatpumps must have been designed by power companies. Next house will have natural gas heating. Natural gas is so cheap now I'm even thinking about putting in a tank to supply a furnace. What's even worse my wife and I both have the flu.
Heat pumps are designed to have auxiliary heat for situations like this. Typically, it is a bunch of electric heat strips that constitute an "electric furnace". Given your description, my guess is that the heat strips in your unit are missing, disabled, or tripped off at the breaker. Our house in south Florida had a heat pump without the strips installed. The previous owner had not upgraded the electrical entrance to allow enough power for them. During the one or two really cold days a winter, we used space heaters.
Your thermostat may have a setting for auxiliary or emergency heat. If so, switch to this. If it still doesn't get warm, call out a tech.
I don't think my heat pump ever had the strips installed because It is expected in Phoenix not to get below 35 but this time it did 23-26 degree lows and for 5 days in a row. I had the unit installed by a local dealer back in 2007 it wasn't a very expensive unit only Paid $3200 installed for 4 ton 13seer. Goodman was the cheapest unit I could find, but it was better then my 35 year old unit I had when we moved in.
Heat pumps have a threshold of just above freezing where they stop working at least the older ones. As I understand it the newer models will work at lower temperatures. As Harry mentioned they usually have a cutoff where the auxiliary heat kicks in which might be electric or natural gas.
You might be able to retrofit it. If you can retrofit do some research because there might be times the heat pump is cheaper than the gas so you can adjust that threshold to use the cheapest fuel depending on the outside temperatures.
Quote:
Heatpumps must have been designed by power companies.
As long as they are being used within their operating temperatures they are more efficient than regualr electric. The efficiency is variable depending on the outside temperatures. Electric is considered 100% efficient, they base the efficiency rating of the heat pump on that and those ratings may be in the high 200% range under ideal outside temperatures.
Well, you pretty much determined what the issue is with your heat pump. Your choice is to pay to add heat strips or use auxiliary heating sources.
About that natural gas... you seem confused there as well (it might be the flu - when I had fever I found myself standing in a room in my gotchkas wondering why I had gone into it.) Natural gas is not the same as propane. Natural gas is rarely compressed, so you can't have a tank of it. Propane can be compressed easily and is delivered that way, (it is what we have for our stove and backup heat) but it costs considerably more. To have natural gas, a pipeline has to pass near your home.
FYI, if you have natural gas service, instead of adding heating strips, ideally the best thing to do would be to install a gas furnace for auxiliary heat. Such hybrid dual-fuel heating systems are growing in popularity in recent years, since at higher temperatures the heat pump is more efficient, but when it gets too cold, the natural gas furnace kicks in, which has lower operating costs than electric heating strips.
Last edited by Pink Jazz; 01-16-2013 at 07:13 PM..
If I had gas lines I wouldn't even have bothered with a heat pump with the over supply now of natural gas prices have come way down my old house I just had a new bryant gas pack about a year before I sold it. Sure miss that hot blast of air would only take 5 minutes to warm the whole house. The problem is my area had no gas lines put in probably a deal was cut with the builder. I work for the electric company I know they used to partner with builders to get there electric lines put into the neighborhood. It seems like to me all the older homes had gas but most of the newer homes are not built with gas lines. This leaves me with little options unless I want to invest in a tank system probably not worth it for a few days a year when it falls below freezing. I spoke to an AC tech he said it should be able to hold 70 degrees in my home I should have it checked out.
When I lived in the greater Boston area, our townhomes had heat pump systems (yea I know, not considered the most effective system for that area). The auxiliary heat (built in part of the unit) was electric. The Aux came on to heat if the system could not generate enough heat fast enough. We all hated to see that RED LIGHT come on......LOL
Later on the local gas company ran gas lines to the neighborhood. They said they would convert you for their cost. Most homes switched to gas heat. The way it was done, was the heat pump portion in the house (looked like a big box that contained the blower motor, Aux heat strips, and AC cooling coils) was replaced with a gas furnace (still looked like a new big box that contained the blower motor, the new gas heat, and the AC cooling coils) thus the heat pump compressor (the box outside ones house) now became only the AC compressor.
If memory serves me right, in the early 90's, the conversion cost was about $1,500.00. Most people made the conversion and were very happy with predictions that with electrical savings and added gas, it would pay for itself in 2 years but it was an immediatly more comfortable system for heating.
Hope this helped.
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