Electric Heating & the "Auxiliary" Heat
 

I just bought a condo (woohoo!), and have noticed ever since I moved in
that the heater will sometimes have a "clicking fit" - for no reason
immediately apparent to me, the heater will make a clicking noise every
second or so, and this will last for quite some time, often until the
heater turns off. Then again, sometimes (like right now) the heater
happily trucks along, warming me & my dogs without making any
irritating noises.

Yesterday, I noticed that the clicking sound corresponded to an
indicator light on my thermostat. The light is labeled "Aux Heat", and
when the heater is clicking away, the light is blinking away, turning
off every time the heater clicks. I have electric heat, and right now
on the thermostat, the fan is set to Auto (as opposed to On) and the
System is set to Heat (as opposed to Off, Cool, or Emer). Since I
noticed the clicking/blinking relationship, I've checked the light when
the heater has been running quietly, and I've seen the light both
steadily off and steadily on.

I've never owned my own place before, and never had electric heat in
any of my previous homes. Is this normal operation, or a symptom of a
problem?

In article .com,
wrote:

I just bought a condo (woohoo!), and have noticed ever since I moved in
that the heater will sometimes have a "clicking fit" - for no reason
immediately apparent to me, the heater will make a clicking noise every
second or so, and this will last for quite some time, often until the
heater turns off. Then again, sometimes (like right now) the heater
happily trucks along, warming me & my dogs without making any
irritating noises.

You likely have a heat pump in your heating/cooling unit.
A heat pump can only get so much heat out of the environment
during the winter. For those really cold days, the heat
pump needs help from a conventional furnace. What is happening
is that this furnace kicks in in Aux mode.

In your case, this Aux mode furance is apparently not starting
properly. Each click is a retry for it to ignite. That ignition
is not working most of the time.

I've never owned my own place before, and never had electric heat in
any of my previous homes. Is this normal operation, or a symptom of a
problem?

Not normal. You need to get a heating contractor out to
service the unit. Check on the unit for any stickers with
the name & phone number of who put it in or last worked
on it. Your building manager may also have some suggestions
on who to call. Finally, your city gas company might work
on these units, and allow you to put the bill on with your
utilities.

You do want to get this fixed. When aux mode is selected,
that means that your heat pump is working in an mode where
it is very inefficient, which likely is running up your
utility bills.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

"John A. Weeks III" wrote in
:

In article
.com,
wrote:

I just bought a condo (woohoo!), and have noticed ever since I
moved in that the heater will sometimes have a "clicking fit" -
for no reason immediately apparent to me, the heater will make a
clicking noise every second or so, and this will last for quite
some time, often until the heater turns off. Then again,
sometimes (like right now) the heater happily trucks along,
warming me & my dogs without making any irritating noises.

You likely have a heat pump in your heating/cooling unit.
A heat pump can only get so much heat out of the environment
during the winter. For those really cold days, the heat
pump needs help from a conventional furnace. What is happening
is that this furnace kicks in in Aux mode.

In your case, this Aux mode furance is apparently not starting
properly. Each click is a retry for it to ignite. That ignition
is not working most of the time.

"Ignite"? on a heat pump system ? Not likely. It is more like the
click is a relay opening and closing turning the AUX on and off. This
should not happen at ths frequency.

I dumb giess might be the anticipatory feature which typically
"anticipates" the current conditions and whether or not the AUX needs
to be turned on to boost heating.

This last guess is not based upon anthing other than what the HVAC guy
has told me.


I've never owned my own place before, and never had electric
heat in any of my previous homes. Is this normal operation, or a
symptom of a problem?

Not normal. You need to get a heating contractor out to
service the unit. Check on the unit for any stickers with
the name & phone number of who put it in or last worked
on it. Your building manager may also have some suggestions
on who to call. Finally, your city gas company might work
on these units, and allow you to put the bill on with your
utilities.

You do want to get this fixed. When aux mode is selected,
that means that your heat pump is working in an mode where
it is very inefficient, which likely is running up your
utility bills.

-john-