We just got our heat pump installed. I tried to do my homework on
deciding which way to go. They just finished installing yesterday so
this morning we decided to try out the system. We live in the Pacific
Northwest. Right now the temp is about 50 degrees so not too cold. I
started out at 58 degrees in the house and turned it up to 62 degrees.
A half hour later of constant running and the house has come up one
degree. I called the company to ask them if this was normal. I was
told that to come up 4 whole degrees to expect 2 to 2 1/2 hours for
that amount of temp to come up. WHAT?? Everybody told me how
"efficient" this was going to be. I told them this system is very
INefficient if it takes that long. They said, oh no, this will cost
you much less than plain electric heat. I told them that was called
"COST EFFECTIVE" and had nothing to do with efficiency. Well, they
didn't know what to tell me - that this was the way heat pumps work.
Why didn't somebody address this before. Or didn't I research this
enough. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't heat my home. I'm
really upset by this whole $8,000 experience. BTW, my house is 1900 SF
and I got a 2 1/2 ton 14 SEER American Standard with a 3 ton air
handler. Thanks for letting me vent. karel

Ummmm, heat pumps are alomst the same as air conditioners, and work
equally bad. Looks like normal operation to me.

"karel" wrote in message
oups.com...
We just got our heat pump installed. I tried to do my homework on
deciding which way to go. They just finished installing yesterday so
this morning we decided to try out the system. We live in the Pacific
Northwest. Right now the temp is about 50 degrees so not too cold. I
started out at 58 degrees in the house and turned it up to 62 degrees.
A half hour later of constant running and the house has come up one
degree. I called the company to ask them if this was normal. I was
told that to come up 4 whole degrees to expect 2 to 2 1/2 hours for
that amount of temp to come up. WHAT?? Everybody told me how
"efficient" this was going to be. I told them this system is very
INefficient if it takes that long. They said, oh no, this will cost
you much less than plain electric heat. I told them that was called
"COST EFFECTIVE" and had nothing to do with efficiency. Well, they
didn't know what to tell me - that this was the way heat pumps work.
Why didn't somebody address this before. Or didn't I research this
enough. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't heat my home. I'm
really upset by this whole $8,000 experience. BTW, my house is 1900 SF
and I got a 2 1/2 ton 14 SEER American Standard with a 3 ton air
handler. Thanks for letting me vent. karel


I can't speak to the efficiency of heat pumps, but I know this: 12 years
ago, we had an ice storm here in upstate NY. My house was unheated for a
week, so it got down to 35 degrees inside. Once power was restored, it took
about two days for the place to feel comfortable again. It's not just the
air you're heating, but all the objects in the house, too. The thermostat
has no way of knowing how cold your furniture is. Get your house up to a
comfortable temp for a few days, and THEN see how much the thing runs in
order to maintain that temp. There may still be issues, but in just one day,
I don't think you can accurately determine that.

Doug Kanter, 11/10/2005, 3:40:49 PM,
wrote:

12 years ago, we had an ice storm here in upstate NY

Blizzard of '93? I was in Utica at the time. That was a nasty storm,
even by NY standards. It took two days for me to dig the cars out of
the driveway.

"badgolferman" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter, 11/10/2005, 3:40:49 PM,
wrote:

12 years ago, we had an ice storm here in upstate NY

Blizzard of '93? I was in Utica at the time. That was a nasty storm,
even by NY standards. It took two days for me to dig the cars out of
the driveway.

I don't recall if it was 91 or 93. But, only two services were able to reach
our street, which had a 6" layer of ice on it: The phone company (which
amazed me), and the cloth diaper delivery guy, who said NOTHING could stop
him. Must've been 91. My son was out of diapers by the time he was 4.

karel wrote:
We just got our heat pump installed. I tried to do my homework on
deciding which way to go. They just finished installing yesterday so
this morning we decided to try out the system. We live in the Pacific
Northwest. Right now the temp is about 50 degrees so not too cold. I
started out at 58 degrees in the house and turned it up to 62 degrees.
A half hour later of constant running and the house has come up one
degree. I called the company to ask them if this was normal. I was
told that to come up 4 whole degrees to expect 2 to 2 1/2 hours for
that amount of temp to come up. WHAT?? Everybody told me how
"efficient" this was going to be. I told them this system is very
INefficient if it takes that long. They said, oh no, this will cost
you much less than plain electric heat. I told them that was called
"COST EFFECTIVE" and had nothing to do with efficiency. Well, they
didn't know what to tell me - that this was the way heat pumps work.
Why didn't somebody address this before. Or didn't I research this
enough. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't heat my home. I'm
really upset by this whole $8,000 experience. BTW, my house is 1900 SF
and I got a 2 1/2 ton 14 SEER American Standard with a 3 ton air
handler. Thanks for letting me vent. karel


In my line of work, efficiency is just a measure of energy input vs.
energy output. Your system consumes very little energy and converts
the vast majority of it to heat, making it very efficient. That
doesn't mean it will heat your house quickly, it just means it doesn't
waste a lot of the energy it consumes. Electric heat is less efficient
(even if it heats your house quickly), because it uses more electricity
to produce the same amount of heat. It seems the metric you are
disappointed with would be BTU per hour.

I realize that quibbling over definitions is not going to make you feel
better, in fact, it may just annoy you. I understand your
disappointment if you were told that high efficiency meant that the
system worked quickly. Especially since it tends to be the case that
the more efficient the system the slower it will work. Sounds like
there was a misunderstanding along the way.

karel wrote:

We just got our heat pump installed. I tried to do my homework on
deciding which way to go. They just finished installing yesterday so
this morning we decided to try out the system. We live in the Pacific
Northwest. Right now the temp is about 50 degrees so not too cold. I
started out at 58 degrees in the house and turned it up to 62 degrees.
A half hour later of constant running and the house has come up one
degree. I called the company to ask them if this was normal. I was
told that to come up 4 whole degrees to expect 2 to 2 1/2 hours for
that amount of temp to come up. WHAT?? Everybody told me how
"efficient" this was going to be. I told them this system is very
INefficient if it takes that long. They said, oh no, this will cost
you much less than plain electric heat. I told them that was called
"COST EFFECTIVE" and had nothing to do with efficiency. Well, they
didn't know what to tell me - that this was the way heat pumps work.
Why didn't somebody address this before. Or didn't I research this
enough. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't heat my home. I'm
really upset by this whole $8,000 experience. BTW, my house is 1900 SF
and I got a 2 1/2 ton 14 SEER American Standard with a 3 ton air
handler. Thanks for letting me vent. karel



Learn your terms better, karel. Efficiency is definitely a term applied
to heat pumps (We have two heat pumps in our home and two in our
business.) The term relates to how many BTUs of heat are delivered in
the house per unit of electrical energy consumed, in comparison with
directly converting that electrical energy to heat with resistance heating.

Heat pumps typically don't have a very high "recovery rate" which means
there's only so much heat (BTUs per unit time) they can put out and
that's usually somewhat lower than with a gas or oil fired system. So,
they will take a while longer to raise the temperature than those other
systems, but what you need to look at is how much electricity they
consume while holding the house at the selected temperature once it gets
to that temperature.

If your life style is such that you don't need to keep the place warm
for 16 to 18 hours a day, and maybe want to come and go several times a
day, then a heat pump may not have been such a good choice for you if
you want to "turn the heat down" down while you are away and want it to
warm up again quickly when you come back in.

You didn't mention whether your system is equipped with auxillary
electric heaters. (All our own systems are.) If you don't have them,
then adding them might be a good way for you to accomplish the rapid
temperature rise it seems you feel you are missing.

HTH,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

Thanks so much Jeff and nlbauers. Those explanations are very
understandable to a non-techno type such as me. I wish these
explanations were presented to me sooner by the different companies,
but, I suppose, they were there to sell me a system and if I didn't ask
the correct questions they were under no obligation to point out
certain inadequacies. I just had no idea that it would take soooo long
to heat my house. Our other house has oil heat and it heats up almost
instantly. Thanks, Karel

"karel" wrote in message
oups.com...
We just got our heat pump installed. I tried to do my homework on
deciding which way to go. They just finished installing yesterday so
this morning we decided to try out the system. We live in the Pacific
Northwest. Right now the temp is about 50 degrees so not too cold. I
started out at 58 degrees in the house and turned it up to 62 degrees.
A half hour later of constant running and the house has come up one
degree. I called the company to ask them if this was normal. I was
told that to come up 4 whole degrees to expect 2 to 2 1/2 hours for
that amount of temp to come up. WHAT?? Everybody told me how
"efficient" this was going to be. I told them this system is very
INefficient if it takes that long. They said, oh no, this will cost
you much less than plain electric heat. I told them that was called
"COST EFFECTIVE" and had nothing to do with efficiency. Well, they
didn't know what to tell me - that this was the way heat pumps work.
Why didn't somebody address this before. Or didn't I research this
enough. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't heat my home. I'm
really upset by this whole $8,000 experience. BTW, my house is 1900 SF
and I got a 2 1/2 ton 14 SEER American Standard with a 3 ton air
handler. Thanks for letting me vent. karel

A heat pump reverses the inside and outside coils, ( very simplified ).
Heat pumps do not work very well below 45 F. Some would say 40F. I live in
the desert and have my windows during the times when it is below triple
digits, so heat is not an issue for me.

Call the folks back with your best sugar voice and ask to speak to the
"trouble shooter or owner". Then politely ask for them to measure the heat
output, while you are there. Have them explain the process to you.
Inside all of the paper work you got on your unit. There are charts on what
to expect on the cooling, and heating output of the system. These charts
are based on a given outside temp and some other factors.

SEER has nothing to do with heating.
I can not see your installation from here, seems small for the size of the
home.
Might be time to call AS, but they will probably send you back to the
contractor.
Best wishes.

karel wrote:
We just got our heat pump installed. I tried to do my homework on
deciding which way to go. They just finished installing yesterday so
this morning we decided to try out the system. We live in the Pacific
Northwest. Right now the temp is about 50 degrees so not too cold. I
started out at 58 degrees in the house and turned it up to 62 degrees.
A half hour later of constant running and the house has come up one
degree. I called the company to ask them if this was normal. I was
told that to come up 4 whole degrees to expect 2 to 2 1/2 hours for
that amount of temp to come up. WHAT?? Everybody told me how
"efficient" this was going to be. I told them this system is very
INefficient if it takes that long. They said, oh no, this will cost
you much less than plain electric heat. I told them that was called
"COST EFFECTIVE" and had nothing to do with efficiency. Well, they
didn't know what to tell me - that this was the way heat pumps work.
Why didn't somebody address this before. Or didn't I research this
enough. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't heat my home. I'm
really upset by this whole $8,000 experience. BTW, my house is 1900 SF
and I got a 2 1/2 ton 14 SEER American Standard with a 3 ton air
handler. Thanks for letting me vent. karel


All the answers about efficient are irrelevant.
Any system that starts at 58 degrees and takes a
half hour to raise the temperature 1 degree is
inadequate. The slowest heating systems are those
with heat grids in the ceiling, and it doesn't
take that long, I know, I lived in an apartment
that had that type of system. We turned the heat
down in the day and turned it up when we got home,
but we didn't turn it down much more than 8
degrees. I think two 1500 watt heaters would heat
faster than your heat pump.

I don't know if it isn't working correctly or if
it is sized wrong, but I think it is the former.
Heat pumps are slow because the output temperature
is lower than gas or oil heat. However, you
should be able to go from 58 degrees to 68 degrees
in less than an hour with the unit running
constantly with your size house. It might take
longer to stabilize, i.e., for temperature to not
drop for a while when the furnace goes off.

Lot's of people here (Boise) have heat pumps.

karel wrote:
Thanks so much Jeff and nlbauers. Those explanations are very
understandable to a non-techno type such as me. I wish these
explanations were presented to me sooner by the different companies,
but, I suppose, they were there to sell me a system and if I didn't ask
the correct questions they were under no obligation to point out
certain inadequacies. I just had no idea that it would take soooo long
to heat my house. Our other house has oil heat and it heats up almost
instantly. Thanks, Karel


Your welcome, and I'm not saying that nothing is wrong with the system
or that it should take that long to heat the house. You should contact
the company and make sure everything is working properly and that the
unit is sized correctly for your house. There may be a problem, I just
want to make sure that you and the people you are talking to understand
your issue.

Neil

snip

You didn't mention whether your system is equipped with auxillary electric
heaters. (All our own systems are.) If you don't have them, then adding
them might be a good way for you to accomplish the rapid temperature rise
it seems you feel you are missing.

I second the suggestion of adding heat stirps if they are not already
installed. That will give you quick warmup and then you can switch to the
more effecient heat pump for maintaining the temperature you desire. If
they are installed your thermosat should have a switch labeled "Aux" or
something to that affect. That will activate the heat strips during times
when you want a quick heat up. Just remember to switch them off when the
space reaches your comfort zone.

The heat strips will come on automatically instead of the heat pump if the
outside temp is something lower that around 40*F.

That's the system I have here in Central Florida. The times when the house
has really cooled down in the "winter" the auxilliary heat (heat strips)
bring the home up to our comfort zone very quickly.

BTW, the heat strips are installed in the outside unit where the heat pump
is located.

karel wrote:
We just got our heat pump installed. I tried to do my homework on
deciding which way to go. They just finished installing yesterday so
this morning we decided to try out the system. We live in the Pacific
Northwest. Right now the temp is about 50 degrees so not too cold. I
started out at 58 degrees in the house and turned it up to 62 degrees.
A half hour later of constant running and the house has come up one
degree. I called the company to ask them if this was normal. I was
told that to come up 4 whole degrees to expect 2 to 2 1/2 hours for
that amount of temp to come up. WHAT?? Everybody told me how
"efficient" this was going to be. I told them this system is very
INefficient if it takes that long. They said, oh no, this will cost
you much less than plain electric heat. I told them that was called
"COST EFFECTIVE" and had nothing to do with efficiency. Well, they
didn't know what to tell me - that this was the way heat pumps work.
Why didn't somebody address this before. Or didn't I research this
enough. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't heat my home. I'm
really upset by this whole $8,000 experience. BTW, my house is 1900
SF and I got a 2 1/2 ton 14 SEER American Standard with a 3 ton air
handler. Thanks for letting me vent. karel

It may be efficient but it sure does not sound effective. There are a
lot of things that go into sizing and the operation of a heat pump so it is
possible the slow recovery time is due to it running in its most efficient
mode. It could be normal. When it gets really cold you will find that it
will actually put out more heat, but it will be working on direct resistance
heat and that is only 100% efficient. Right now you should be above 100%
efficient (yea I know that sounds screwy but heat pumps can operate at over
100% pumping more heat than energy consumed.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

Bishoop wrote:
snip

You didn't mention whether your system is equipped with auxillary electric
heaters. (All our own systems are.) If you don't have them, then adding
them might be a good way for you to accomplish the rapid temperature rise
it seems you feel you are missing.


I second the suggestion of adding heat stirps if they are not already
installed. That will give you quick warmup and then you can switch to the
more effecient heat pump for maintaining the temperature you desire. If
they are installed your thermosat should have a switch labeled "Aux" or
something to that affect. That will activate the heat strips during times
when you want a quick heat up. Just remember to switch them off when the
space reaches your comfort zone.

The heat strips will come on automatically instead of the heat pump if the
outside temp is something lower that around 40*F.

That's the system I have here in Central Florida. The times when the house
has really cooled down in the "winter" the auxilliary heat (heat strips)
bring the home up to our comfort zone very quickly.

BTW, the heat strips are installed in the outside unit where the heat pump
is located.



Our auxillary heaters are located in the inside air handlers, downstream
from the "coils".

We're in the Boston area, so the outside temperature does go as low zero
degrees F a few times during the winter, and the auxillary heaters are
pretty much working full time on those occasions.

From what I've been able to tell, our winter heating bills are fairly
on a par with those of our neighbors who use fuel oil or gas heat, and
the cleanlyness, low maintenance and additional safety* gained by using
heat pumps for winter heating make sense to me.

This spring we had the two outside heat pump units at home replaced with
new ones at a cost of about $3,300 (Including an optionally purchased 10
year warranty from Trane.) The old units had survived 19 years without
needing maintenance or repairs beyond my DIY capabilities, but one
failed in February and the other seemed "feeble" so I figured shelling
out what amounted to only $165 a year "replacement cost" was a pretty
fair deal.

Jeff

* See another post here from me today regarding a major gas company
screwup in the town next to the one we live in.

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

Karel,

Your unit size sounds fine to me. I live in a 2000 square foot house
in Myrtle Beach, SC and I have a 2-ton heat pump with 4KW strip heat.

Please note that it is usually a bad idea to run strip heat unless it
is below about 35 degrees outside.

If you switch the thermostat to "Emergency Heat", you shut off the heat
pump compressor (the cheap heat) and run strip heat ONLY. Strip heat
is typically only 1/3 as efficient as the heat pump at your conditions.
That means it costs three times as much to operate as the heat pump
for the same amount of heat. Emergency Heat also means you will get
LESS heat, NOT more heat. Use Emergency Heat only if there is
something wrong with you outdoor unit, like a broken fan blade or heavy
ice buildup.

If you post your email address with spaces around the "dot" and "at", I
will email you our 4-page instruction sheet on "Care and Operation of
Your Heat Pump". That should explain a lot of things you need to know.

Don't set a heat pump temperature back at night in the heating season,
it will increase your electric bill.

Hope this helps

Kevin O'Neill
"Stretch"
O'Neill-Bagwell Cooling & Heating
843-385-2220
sixfoot7 @ sccoast dot net

After talking to a tech at the installing company, they told me to
check the thermostat. It was on AUX heat. I changed it to work on the
heat pump and tried it out again and the temp went up 3 degrees in 20
minutes. MUCH better. The house is empty since we just purchased it
and THEN found out the heat didn't work. We had to get this straight
before we could occupy it. I'll check it tomorrow morning again when
the temps are the coolest to see if I can get the temps up quicker.
Thanks everyone. Karel

BTW, we have 2 10KW heat strips for those that were asking. Karel

karel wrote:

After talking to a tech at the installing company, they told me to
check the thermostat. It was on AUX heat. I changed it to work on the
heat pump and tried it out again and the temp went up 3 degrees in 20
minutes. MUCH better. The house is empty since we just purchased it
and THEN found out the heat didn't work. We had to get this straight
before we could occupy it. I'll check it tomorrow morning again when
the temps are the coolest to see if I can get the temps up quicker.
Thanks everyone. Karel

Something still doesn't sound right then...the AUX position should allow
the heat strips to kick in but shouldn't keep the heat pump from running
as well.

The 20 kW of aux heat isn't much, granted, by itself, so the slow heat
up rate makes some since.

Many installers will interlock the aux heat w/ the outside temperature
so that they won't kick on until it's below somewhere in the 20s just to
prevent the needless use of them. Perhaps they got something like that
mixed up where it kept the heat pump unit off, not the aux heat.

Bishoop wrote:
snip

You didn't mention whether your system is equipped with auxillary electric
heaters. (All our own systems are.) If you don't have them, then adding
them might be a good way for you to accomplish the rapid temperature rise
it seems you feel you are missing.


I second the suggestion of adding heat stirps if they are not already
installed. That will give you quick warmup and then you can switch to the
more effecient heat pump for maintaining the temperature you desire. If
they are installed your thermosat should have a switch labeled "Aux" or
something to that affect. That will activate the heat strips during times
when you want a quick heat up. Just remember to switch them off when the
space reaches your comfort zone.

The heat strips will come on automatically instead of the heat pump if the
outside temp is something lower that around 40*F.

That's the system I have here in Central Florida. The times when the house
has really cooled down in the "winter" the auxilliary heat (heat strips)
bring the home up to our comfort zone very quickly.

BTW, the heat strips are installed in the outside unit where the heat pump
is located.




Well, the PNW is not Florida, so heat strips
(auxiliary heat coils) are a must have. Any
installation without them is remiss. How would
you heat a house when the temp drops to 10 F if
you didn't have the auxillary heat coils? BTW, I
don't know for certain, but I think heat strips
are located in the air flow system. Heating the
compressor unit would be very inefficient.

Stretch wrote:

Don't set a heat pump temperature back at night in the heating season,
it will increase your electric bill.

You can't find clever controls to make heatpump setbacks save energy?

Nick

Al Moran wrote:

... Now here is the expensive part about heat strips. Most heat pump
stats have a 3 degree offset for these strips. This means; if it is 65
degrees in the house and you set the thermostat to 69 degrees (greater
than 3 degrees) these heat strips will come on...

We might call them "bad heat pump thermostats" :-)

Nick

karel wrote:
We just got our heat pump installed. I tried to do my homework on
deciding which way to go. They just finished installing yesterday so
this morning we decided to try out the system. We live in the Pacific
Northwest. Right now the temp is about 50 degrees so not too cold. I
started out at 58 degrees in the house and turned it up to 62 degrees.

You are like a friend I have that lives in that area...she keeps her
house so damn cold she could hang meat in it.
_________________

A half hour later of constant running and the house has come up one
degree. I called the company to ask them if this was normal. I was
told that to come up 4 whole degrees to expect 2 to 2 1/2 hours for
that amount of temp to come up. WHAT?? Everybody told me how
"efficient" this was going to be. I told them this system is very
INefficient if it takes that long. They said, oh no, this will cost
you much less than plain electric heat. I told them that was called
"COST EFFECTIVE" and had nothing to do with efficiency. Well, they
didn't know what to tell me - that this was the way heat pumps work.
Why didn't somebody address this before. Or didn't I research this
enough. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't heat my home. I'm
really upset by this whole $8,000 experience. BTW, my house is 1900
SF and I got a 2 1/2 ton 14 SEER American Standard with a 3 ton air
handler. Thanks for letting me vent. karel

yawn User error.

BTW, it *will* heat your house.


--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

that's crazy- I have not spent $8000 on heat total cost in the 12 years
I've lived in my house- I heat with coal and maybe spent about
$3500-4000 at best. I agree, you've been had.

The blizzard was in March of 93 but I remember upstate NY getting
hammered by an ice storm around that time as well, maybe 91, not really
sure. We drove up through it several years later and we could still
see the damage, broken trees and such. Kind of looked like a tornado
had gone through.


Doug Kanter wrote:
"badgolferman" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter, 11/10/2005, 3:40:49 PM,
wrote:

12 years ago, we had an ice storm here in upstate NY

Blizzard of '93? I was in Utica at the time. That was a nasty storm,
even by NY standards. It took two days for me to dig the cars out of
the driveway.

I don't recall if it was 91 or 93. But, only two services were able to reach
our street, which had a 6" layer of ice on it: The phone company (which
amazed me), and the cloth diaper delivery guy, who said NOTHING could stop
him. Must've been 91. My son was out of diapers by the time he was 4.

"UNIVERSAL MIND" wrote in message
oups.com...
that's crazy- I have not spent $8000 on heat total cost in the 12 years
I've lived in my house- I heat with coal and maybe spent about
$3500-4000 at best. I agree, you've been had.


I think the OP was talking about the cost of the system, and it sounds like
you're talking about the cost of heating the house. Or, it's too early and
I'm all mixed up.

I think UNIVERSAL MIND is referring to the fact that we will never get
our money out of our "investment." Oh well, Karel

karel wrote:

I think UNIVERSAL MIND is referring to the fact that we will never get
our money out of our "investment." Oh well, Karel

Don't know that that is a foregone conclusion. What were/are the
alternatives and relative fuel costs for the area you're in? The
installation cost sounds a little high, but for a high efficiency system
the long term cost should be significantly less than the
cheaper-initial-cost alternatives. How much is highly dependent on
local conditions.

Okay, here’s what happened today. I went over to the house and turned
the temp up from 58 to 65. AUX heat came on (back up heat) and 30 min
later, the temp indicator didn’t even come up one degree but warmish
air was coming out of the registers.. I turned the temp to 61 so there
would only be a few degree difference to see if I could get the heat
pump to come on and it did. Now coolish air was coming out of the
registers and still no temp difference. I called the company and this
was what I was told: The thermostat should not be manually overridden.
We should program the thermostat and should never have the set point
more than 5 degrees different. The sophisticated thermostat will learn
how to heat our house efficiently and how long it takes to heat our
house and will adjust accordingly. I was told that if I continually
override the system and turn the temp up manually, it would take up to
4 hours for the heat pump to raise the temp up 4 or 5 degrees. The
“efficiency” of the heat pump relies on bringing up the temps VERY
slowly. If we want to raise the temp up faster, it will go into AUX
heat and our heat bill will go up pretty quickly. Also, the
temperature that is reading on the thermostat is not the actual temp
but an average temperature. I’m really disappointed because I’m used
to raising the temp on the heater and the house actually heating up in
minutes. I guess that is a big difference between oil or gas and
electric heat. I wish I would have learned all of this before. I
still feel had. Karel

karel wrote:

Okay, here’s what happened today. I went over to the house and turned
the temp up from 58 to 65. AUX heat came on (back up heat) and 30 min
later, the temp indicator didn’t even come up one degree but warmish
air was coming out of the registers.. I turned the temp to 61 so there
would only be a few degree difference to see if I could get the heat
pump to come on and it did. Now coolish air was coming out of the
registers and still no temp difference. I called the company and this
was what I was told: The thermostat should not be manually overridden.
We should program the thermostat and should never have the set point
more than 5 degrees different. The sophisticated thermostat will learn
how to heat our house efficiently and how long it takes to heat our
house and will adjust accordingly. I was told that if I continually
override the system and turn the temp up manually, it would take up to
4 hours for the heat pump to raise the temp up 4 or 5 degrees. The
“efficiency” of the heat pump relies on bringing up the temps VERY
slowly. If we want to raise the temp up faster, it will go into AUX
heat and our heat bill will go up pretty quickly. Also, the
temperature that is reading on the thermostat is not the actual temp
but an average temperature. I’m really disappointed because I’m used
to raising the temp on the heater and the house actually heating up in
minutes. I guess that is a big difference between oil or gas and
electric heat. I wish I would have learned all of this before. I
still feel had. Karel

There _is_ a major difference between a heat pump and a combustion
source furnace, that is certainly true. I would still ask the installer
to do a check of the exit temperatures and temperature rise while the
unit is running to ensure it is actually performing up to snuff. I
would also requst they interlock the AUX heating strips w/ a
thermocouple to outside temperature so that they will stay off until
outside temperatures are cold enough to make them a real necessity.

You will, indeed, need to learn to adjust from the expectation that you
can turn on the furnace manually and expect 110-120F air to blast from
the heating ducts---w/ a heat pump this just ain't a gonna' happen. Any
reading about how heat pumps work should have made you aware of this.

However, if you learn to set the thermostat at the desired setpoint and
leave it, you will find that the house will achieve a comfortable level
and stay. I've not had one of the "smart" thermostats, but it should,
indeed, be able to figure out what to do most efficiently if (but only
if) you set it and leave it alone. The installer is correct that if you
keep munging on it as if it were a gas furnace that it will never have a
chance to do so.

There should be a sizing calculation worksheet that has temperature
rises and exits, etc., that should be able to give you an idea of what
you should expect. Stick a good quality mercury bulb thermometer at a
duct exit and see what you do get. Keep the thermostat in "HEAT"
position to avoid the unnecessary and costly strip heaters from going
on.

Duane, thanks for all the info. You've been very informative. I will
ask about the thermocouple when they come out next week. I think
everything will work out fine. They sell a lot of these units so they
would have to work up to expectations. Otherwise they would soon go by
the way of the horse and buggy. Anyway, that is what I keep telling
myself. I just have to get used to the differences. Thanks again to
everyone. Karel