Today we have a message for our heat pump customers, just in time for this cold weather!
We’ve been getting questions from our heat pump customers about when to turn on emergency heat.
Wait As Long As Possible
The answer is: try to wait as long as you can before you turn on your emergency heat. Wait until it’s very cold outside (like now), and your system is struggling to maintain the temperature inside.
Why Wait?
Well, the emergency heat setting uses much more electricity and is much costlier than the normal setting. In fact, it uses 4-5 times more electricity than your normal heat pump. This is why heat pumps are so great—in our normal climate, they cost so little to run! But as soon as you flip that emergency heat on you will see a definite increase in your electric bill.
Heat Pumps
Heat pumps are efficient and cost-effective in our normal Texas climate. In fact, if you don’t have one, you might consider getting one.
A heat pump pulls heat from the outside to heat your house. When you have a heat pump your outdoor unit comes on when heating as well as when cooling, because it is pulling that warm air inside. This works well in a place like Texas, where it doesn’t get cold very often! If you have an all-electric house, you probably have a heat pump. About 20-25% of the houses we see are all-electric with a heat pump.
Heat pumps are a much more efficient way to heat your home. And when a system is efficient, it costs less to run!
Why Heat Pumps Have an Emergency Mode
However, when it does get very cold outside, say into the 20s, heat pumps struggle. There is no heat outside for them to pull into your home, so it can’t warm your home. This is why heat pumps have an “emergency heat” mode. In Texas, you won’t need to run it often but it’s there when you need it.
Your Next Step
If you have any questions about your heat pump or about heating in general, call us! We can answer your questions and make sure you have the system that is just right for your house, to keep you warm this winter.