Hello,

I just bought my first home in Minnesota, I moved from Texas, so winter
is new to me here. I have an outdoor heat pump and I noticed it has a
TON of ice around it, like a small ice rink, is this normal? On my
thermostat I can put it on Heat, Cool, Auto, or Elec Heat.
When I put it on auto or heat it runs off my heat pump and the air out
of the vents feels cool. When I put it on Elec Heat, my furnace kicks
in and I get nice hot air out of the vents.
My home inspector told me to run it on auto or heat to save $ on energy
and that running it on Elec will kill my furnace
I don't know? Anyone know much about this?
I think I have been getting bad advice up here. This is my first
Minnesota winter and I took my sump pump hose off in the fall and my
neighbor came over and told me to leave it on or I would have a ice
rink on my side walk in the winter, he is a native to the state and I
thought he would know more then myself, so I listened. The past few
months my pump was running 24/7 and never dealing with one before I
figured it must be normal. A few days ago my electic started
shorting/flickering, so I went down and the hole for sump pump was full
with bubbling water, I was confused, so I went out a lifted up the hose
by the base and it exploded out with boiling hot water.
How damaging is that to let your sump pump run 24/7 for a few
weeks/months, can it cause electric issues, fire, etc?
I am starting to miss Texas like crazy!

It would appear that you are talking about two issues in your post.
(BYW I live in Minnesota)

First about your heat pump system. Basically a heat pump is a
compressor. When in the "COOL" mode, it will remove heat from your
home and transfer the heat to the outside. In the "HEAT" mode, it will
remove heat from the outside and transfer to the inside. When the
outside air temperature drops the amount of heat extracted from the
compressor is no longer suffiicient to heat the house and electric heat
is required as supplement heat. Also, the heat pump manufacturer will
have specifications as to when the heat pump should be turned off below
a certain outside air temperature.

Your second issue may be that your sump pump was running but could not
discharge the water out of the sump pit. Maybe hose to outside is
frozen in hose or at discharge outlet. Keep in mind that if your
foundation is near water table, you can experience continual water
discharging into a sump pump during the winter. In these cases, you
will need to insure you have proper discharge of the water to the
outside, away from foundation and free of ice.

First about your heat pump system. Basically a heat pump is a
compressor. When in the "COOL" mode, it will remove heat from your
home and transfer the heat to the outside. In the "HEAT" mode, it will
remove heat from the outside and transfer to the inside. When the
outside air temperature drops the amount of heat extracted from the
compressor is no longer suffiicient to heat the house and electric heat
is required as supplement heat. Also, the heat pump manufacturer will
have specifications as to when the heat pump should be turned off below
a certain outside air temperature.

The last post was correct about the heat pump in the way that it
functions. However I feel that Minasota Is way to cold for a heat pump
application. When it gets as cold outside as it does there the heat
pump wont work and you will have to rely on your electric back up
heat.It wont damage your furnace to run the Back up heat strips but
will cost more to run. When the outdoor unit gets a covering of ice on
it it should go into a defrost mode and run as a normal A/C unit to
melt off the ice. You will see steam and hear hissing and cracking as
the ice melts. This is normal and dont be worried. If it never defrost
then there is a problem with that part of the system and it should be
checked by a HVAC service tech. Hope some of this helped. Steve. Arctic
A/C Services. Fl.