This is Turtle.

Reply Below in Parts.




"Michael Baugh" wrote in message
.. .
Just visited someone with a heat pump, gotta question.
The outdoor temperature was in the 20's, I realize there
was precious little heat out there for it to relocate to inside.
So the strip heaters needed to be doing their thing. But when
the thermostat would initially call for heat, the blower would come
on, and the heat pump would obviously be attempting to do its thing
first, rather than immediately kicking in the heaters. So the unit is
blowing cold air.
Does a heat pump thermostat have a 2-stage sensor bulb, so that
when it gets colder in the house because the heat pump isn't finding
any heat out there, the heat strips get cut on? Or is there a time frame
that goes past before the strips get cut on? The blower was delivering
cold air. Obviously, any air coming out of the vents that was not being
heated would be felt as cold, simply becuse it was room-air temperature
moving past us.

The installer can have the heat pump come on or go off at anytime or have
the electric back up heat come on at anytime he wants it to by the way he
sets up the 24 volt control circuits. Yes, 95% of all heat pump thermostat
have a second stage heat on then set to come on 3 ºF colder than the Room
set temperature. If he wired it up to do so.
There is outdoor thermostats that can turn on the Electric back up heat and
the heat pump to run together atany temperature he wants or it can turn the
heat pump off at certain tempratures outside and just run the electric heat.
Anything you described here as to not to your liking, a good Heat Pump
installer can make it do anything you want it to do at any time or at any
temperature outside or inside.


The thermostat was a General Electric unit, and I'm generally not
impressed with GE stuff anyway. But my awareness of heat pump stuff is
extremely slim, and I need a better overview of how that works. I realize
that temperature setback is not seen as a good idea at night, because of
it being a heat pump, but it would be damned agravating to have a cold
breeze blowing past at night, too. Is this a typical problem encountered,
especially since there are units that sense outside temperature and cause
the
thermostat to bypass the attempt to drag heat from outside when it's below
30 degrees or so?

Well Here is your set up to stop this problem. Set outdoor thermostat to
just turn heat pump off at 30ºF or less out side and just run the electric
strips during this time. When the temperature goes above 30ºF outside. the
heat pump will come back on and the Back up electric strips will go back to
second stage heat of 3 degrees behind the set point of the thermostat. now
the temperature outside goes under 30ºF you have hot air. Above 30ºf you
just have warm air from the heat pump. now you can set the temperature to do
this way on up to say 50 degree outside and have back up come on and turn
heat pump off. Now there is 6 other ways to set this up but i chose this one
for it was most commonly used.



Is the GE thermostat the bottom of the line?


G/E / Trane / American Standard are all the same brand now days and they
have about 25% of all stuff sold in the US with their name on it. I have
been told they are fair stuff but they truely are the highest priced. i
would say just fair stuff.


Is there a
reasonably priced unit that incorporates outdoor sensing and doesn't cause
the unit to be blowing cold air?

YES , Every Brand sold in the USA because the heat pump manufactor makes all
the system just about 99% the same way and the installer will decide to wire
it to do what you want it to do. ALL the controlling system is installed by
the installer and the factory just makes the pieces to put together to do
what you want. The Cheapest piece of HVAC equipment in the hands of a good
installer can make it run like a Rolls Royce. Now remember one thing here.
These good installer will not be the cheapest bidder. The Rookies will be
the Lowest bidders.


Educate me, please. Or give me some favorite URL's. Thanks ahead of time.


My GOD, Have you got about 2 years to study the system and you might come
work for me for a couple years and you will understand the system pretty
good. If Not you will just have to try to ask me or others questions and
piece it together. Now most URL's that are out there are there to sell you
something and it just stear you to buy something and not to understand the
systems. I will run a little research to see and let you know.

TURTLE



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