# New to heat pumps, help me understand



## jrsaltz (Sep 15, 2008)

Hey all! 

So i am a plumber not a heating guy by any means. I have decent experience with a basic residential forced air furnace as i have hooked gas to them and piped vents plenty of times when trimming new construction. That is it! 

Give me a boiler and i can do about anything on it. 

Heat pumps......i got nothing. So, i move from the Midwest near Chicago to Northeast GA to escape the cold. Apparently mother nature has a different idea. So its decently cold here, single digits at night and it seems like our heat wont keep up unless the AUX heat kicks in? I assume this is some type of heating element because when i first saw this kick on i got that hot blow dryer smell from the vent briefly. 

Is a heat pump just not going to keep up and always call for AUX heat in much colder conditions? Is this normal or should i be concerned? 

Thanks in advance.


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

jrsaltz said:


> Hey all!
> 
> So i am a plumber not a heating guy by any means. I have decent experience with a basic residential forced air furnace as i have hooked gas to them and piped vents plenty of times when trimming new construction. That is it!
> 
> ...


Crap forced air repair and 100 percent hydronic heat guy here... don't know dididtty about heat pump.. sorry


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

But I do think its electric element heat for back up..


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

You may want to go to Heatinghelp.com..for more information


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## Catlin987987 (Nov 12, 2010)

It it a water heatpump or air?


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## jrsaltz (Sep 15, 2008)

Catlin987987 said:


> It it a water heatpump or air?


This is for heat in my home. It has a condenser (or whatever it is) outside, actually i have several. One is for the main part of the house, one is for the upstairs bedrooms which are kept closed and at a different temperature, one for my garage and one for my barn which is a fully finished space where my office is.

The one for my main living space seems to just do whatever it wants. We set it at 70 at night and when we wake up it is set at 64. Its calling for 64 and temp is at 64. Maybe its a thermostat issue? All the others seem to be operating properly.


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## Catlin987987 (Nov 12, 2010)

Heat pumps can work off of both water and air. An example of a water one is geothermal or a cooling tower/ boiler combo(Large building). Check the temp of the lines coming in and out of the condenser, one should be not and the other cold. Check what kind of refrigerant it uses.


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## joeplumber85 (Jul 16, 2012)

jrsaltz said:


> This is for heat in my home. It has a condenser (or whatever it is) outside, actually i have several. One is for the main part of the house, one is for the upstairs bedrooms which are kept closed and at a different temperature, one for my garage and one for my barn which is a fully finished space where my office is.
> 
> The one for my main living space seems to just do whatever it wants. We set it at 70 at night and when we wake up it is set at 64. Its calling for 64 and temp is at 64. Maybe its a thermostat issue? All the others seem to be operating properly.


Are these ductless mini splits or do you have a true split system with outdoor condensor, air handler and coil?

The heating output of a heat pump drops as the outdoor temperature decreases. When the temperature drops below the Balance Point the heat pump will not produce enough heat to maintain temperature within the home, this is when you get the call for auxiliary heat. Generally the furnace takes over if it's a dual fuel system or the electric strips activate alongside the heat pump in an all electric system.


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

Rip it all out and install hydronic heating and be a hero...


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## Cuda (Mar 16, 2009)

Post some pics Jake! These guys will sort you out for the part of the country you have moved to now. I am not a heating guy and wait for any info.


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## mtfallsmikey (Jan 11, 2010)

How many KW of toaster heat do you have?


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## mrjasontgreek (May 21, 2014)

Sounds like a programmable stat... You need to modify your schedule to get rid of the night setback. Kicking the temp up and down on that system will actually cost you more. When you jack the stat back up to 70 it'll kick on the electric and burn 3-4 times the power to produce heat. Yes, when the outdoor temp drops the electric will kick in from time to time. Mine comes on at around 17 degrees.


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## AWWGH (May 2, 2011)

It's a two stage unit. First stage is heat pump second is electric. When hear pump cannot maintain it will turn on the electric since your heat pump only heats efficiently into the 30's or so. Like mentioned when the stat in cranked up it will out the electric backup on because the system thinks it is not maintaining. Best way to run a heat pump is to set it to a temp and leave it. If you play with the stat a lot you're going to get the electric spinning that meter like a roulette table.


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## Greenguy (Jan 22, 2011)

Depending on your controls when there is a call for heat if there is more then a 3°F or 5°f difference in the current temp and the target temps your system may skip trying to heat using the heat pump and just go straight to the aux or emergency heat to boost the temps. As stated above its best to set a temp and leave it constant they can be quite comfortable, the geothermal units can be nice but also pricy depending on how many and how big of pumps your using for your system.

The original post asked how it works, a normal AC unit will expel the heat out into the coil outside when there is a call for cooling inside, with a heat pump they use a reversing valve to send the heat into the residence and expel the cool air outside. 

Another place a lot of us have seen this idea is on Ice machines a lot of them have a plate that cools off water pours over it and forms ice. When the ice reaches a desired thickness the reversing valve kicks in and it starts to harvest the ice the plate heats up this causes the ice to drop off into our storage compartment, if you ever get a chance to watch a hotel ice maker work they are pretty cool, water to ice in under 15 minutes per cycle.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

The burnt toaster smell is normal; just the dead bugs and the dust being burnt off the air handler unit. Since the last time that you used the unit for heating was likely last winter, all summer the dust and bugs have been accumulating on the heating part.

Heat pumps are the South's way of giving people heat in the winter. Heat pumps are not very efficient, they'd never do up north with the really cold weather, but they are all over FL and other states with mild winters.

Keep the filters clean and change them regularly, otherwise the fins on the unit will get clogged badly with grime. Then you'll have an iced up unit and no A/C in the summer. Plus, keep the condensate drain line clean. A cup of bleach each month and/or wet vac the slimy algae out of the drain line.

Years ago I worked at a company that did plumbing and A/C. When plumbing was slow, they'd have me drive with an A/C guy.


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## Greenguy (Jan 22, 2011)

was just reading the BC safety Authority page on the latest happening's and incidents, included was a brief into into refrigeration:
http://safetyauthority.ca/publications/state-safety-report-2014


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