"bill" wrote in message
...
My daughter is complaining about high heat bills. i bet the elect
resistence elect coil is on a lot. how do i tell when the coil comes
on? and how do you turn it off? what turns it on? when temp is
below 32? if compressor is ok, why would coil come on? she had the
system checked and they said ok. wonder if they checked out operation
of coils. thanks for any insight. bill in Maryland

The electric heaters come on when the room temperature (at the thermostat)
falls more than a few degrees below the set point. They also come on when
the heat pump (outside unit) goes into defrost.

In some installation, the thermostat has a lamp that comes on when the
resistance heating is being called for.

My system came with a total of 60 amps (about 15kw) of available resistance
heating. In my case, it was easly to arrange things so that only 20 amps
of resistance heating would be switched on. Obviously, when it gets VERY
cold outside, the inside temperature sags! It's a question of money vr.
comfort.

We compromise with a combination of LPG ventless heaters and small electric
heaters that give some extra heat where the people are.

The quick and dirty way to save money is to turn the thermostat down to,
say, 60 or 65 and use small electric heaters (750 watts) where you want the
extra heat like when you are watching TV. Waterbed heaters and electric
blankets also make it possible to be comfortable when the house as a whole
is on the chilly side.

I agree with the other poster who said that you should pick a thermostat
setting and leave it alone. Timers cause more problems than they solve
when you have a heat pump.