Our heat pump HVAC system’s heat strips quit working. The thermostat would show the auxiliary was on but the strips were not producing heat, neither were the heat strips working when set on emergency heat.
After going through all kinds of trouble shooting and prepared to order a new heat strip unit, I had our neighbor come over and take a look at things and get his input. After he and I tried several diagnostics, he was looking at the unit when I activated the auxiliary heat and one contacts that feed the heat strips arced. This was on one the gizmos that regulate the heat strips as far as temperature. (Turning the strips off when the reach a certain temperature, etc.)
There are three of these gizmos that feed the electric current to each of the three strips.
I removed the gizmos and cleaned all the contacts and tightened up the female spade connectors and reinstalled them. Low and behold, that solved the problem and now the auxiliary heat and emergency heat are working!
Sometimes, it is a simple solution, and in this case………………… I thank my lucky stars.
We have a total electric house, so a heat pump is needed. If had my druthers, I would never have a heat pump and would prefer natural gas heat.
In my way of thinking, heat pumps can never be as efficient as natural gas heat in the northern latitudes, unless they are geothermal units; which are quite pricey to have installed. The heat strips must kick on when the temperatures drop below a certain point, and that requires a bunch of electricity.
Hopefully, no one else runs into heat pump heat strip problems, but if one does, it could be simple as a bad connection. Something to check!
Hopefully this helps!
Picture of gizmos with bad connection.
After going through all kinds of trouble shooting and prepared to order a new heat strip unit, I had our neighbor come over and take a look at things and get his input. After he and I tried several diagnostics, he was looking at the unit when I activated the auxiliary heat and one contacts that feed the heat strips arced. This was on one the gizmos that regulate the heat strips as far as temperature. (Turning the strips off when the reach a certain temperature, etc.)
There are three of these gizmos that feed the electric current to each of the three strips.
I removed the gizmos and cleaned all the contacts and tightened up the female spade connectors and reinstalled them. Low and behold, that solved the problem and now the auxiliary heat and emergency heat are working!
Sometimes, it is a simple solution, and in this case………………… I thank my lucky stars.
We have a total electric house, so a heat pump is needed. If had my druthers, I would never have a heat pump and would prefer natural gas heat.
In my way of thinking, heat pumps can never be as efficient as natural gas heat in the northern latitudes, unless they are geothermal units; which are quite pricey to have installed. The heat strips must kick on when the temperatures drop below a certain point, and that requires a bunch of electricity.
Hopefully, no one else runs into heat pump heat strip problems, but if one does, it could be simple as a bad connection. Something to check!
Hopefully this helps!
Picture of gizmos with bad connection.
throw breaker 2 which will only allow one set of heat strips to work OR pull the dead front and remove one of the wires going to one of the coils in the three control relays for heat strips tied to breaker #2 limiting myself to two heater strips that can work. That at least was my plan but now if we lose power again like that I’ll just shut off the heater all together and heat the house with our propane/gas fireplace and ceiling fans to circulate the air. I ran a test this past cold spell and that fireplace burns around 15 gallons a day keeping the house a toasty 78°.
