Short answer: You should only set your heat pump’s thermostat to “emergency heat” when your heat pump stops heating altogether.And in that case, you should also call a professional for help.Otherwise, just keep your thermostat set on “heat.” There is no temperature to switch it over to emergency heat, even if your heat pump is running constantly due to cold weather.Long answer: If you’re not familiar with heat pumps work, here’s an extended answer that explains the reasoning behind our short answer.A heat pump is basically an air conditioner that can work in reverse to heat your home. It moves heat around from one place to another. In winter, it moves heat from the outside to inside your home.But when it gets below 40°F outside, your heat pump struggles to extract heat from the outside to meet the heating requirements you have set on your thermostat.To make up the cold weather, your heat pump starts using a backup heat source to supplement its heating efforts.  Most heat pumps use a strip of electric heat coils (like ones in a toaster) as a backup.

However, those electric coils use a ton of electricity. That means higher energy bills for you.So what’s this got to do with the emergency heat mode? OK, so when you turn your thermostat to emergency heat, your heat pump will stop trying to extract heat from outside to heat your home inside. Instead it will use ONLY the backup heat strip to heat your home.So, your heat pump has now become an electric furnace. And those cost you even more money to run than a gas furnace. Basically, you’re paying more to heat your home for the same amount of heat.Doesn’t make sense does it? So don’t turn your thermostat to emergency heat unless you have to.Yes, your heat pump will be running longer when it gets super cold outside. But that’s ok compared to how much money you’d be spending using the heat strip.“Emergency heat” mode does not mean, “Turn this on when it gets really cold outside.” It means “turn this on when your heat pump stops heating altogether.”But if your heat pump has a trouble heating, you need to contact a heating contractor in Northern California for help and you may need to install a gas furnace as a more efficient backup heat source.

Get it done quick or you’ll kick yourself when you see your next utility bill.We think we've answered this question for you! Click here to see the answer Upload ImageEmail me when other answers are addedShare post on FacebookBe a Good Neighbor. Be respectful and on-topic. No spam or self-promotion! See our Good Neighbor Policy. Recently I've learned of two people running their heat pump in a way that costs them a lot of extra money. With heat pumps, there's an extra setting on the thermostat. In addition to heat, cool, and off, there's a setting for emergency heat. But what is that setting for? What does it do? A heat pump, as I wrote before, pulls heat from the outside air (unless you have a ground source heat pump, which pulls heat from the ground or a body of water). As it gets colder outside, your heat pump is able to pull less heat inside. Eventually it can't meet the heating load of the house. That's where supplemental heat—which is NOT the same things as emergency heat—kicks in.

What happens when your heat pump can't keep up? For most heat pumps, the supplemental heat source is electric resistance (strip) heat. When the heat pump can no longer pull enough heat from outside to meet the heating load of the house, the electric resistance heat comes on and supplements the heat pump. If you have an all-electric home, your supplemental heat source is almost certainly electric resistance heat.ac unit thermostat control If your home has natural gas, propane, or fuel oil, the supplemental heat may be supplied by a furnace. 5 ton ac unit commercialThis is called a dual-fuel system. cost for hvac trainingMost of these are connected in a way that when it gets too cold outside for the heat pump to supply all of the heat, the heat pump shuts off and the furnace supplies all of the heat.

If your supplemental heat is supplied by electric resistance, it's 100% efficient. That may sound good, but it's not. The heat pump, by that same measure, is 200 to 300 percent efficient, so when the heat pump by itself can't supply all the heat your home needs, you at least want it to supply as much as it can. That gets you more of the 200-300% efficient heat and less of the 100% efficient heat. Unfortunately, some people have a misunderstanding about how this works, and sometimes that misunderstanding comes from a surprising source. For some reason, a lot of people overlook that the thermostat says 'emergency,' not 'supplemental,' and think that when it gets cold outside they have to switch over to emergency heat. Now, here's the kicker. Evidently they have good reason to think that, because in both of the cases I've heard about recently, their HVAC company told them to switch over when it's 'in the thirties' in one case and 'below freezing' in the other. How are people supposed to learn the correct way to use their thermostat for a heat pump when they're getting such bad advice from the person who's supposed to know!?

If you switch to emergency heat, you're going to pay a lot more, perhaps hundreds of dollars more, to heat your house. Another interesting thing about one of these cases is that the owner had just had his electric furnace, which is all strip heat, replaced with a heat pump. He spent thousands of dollars to get a more efficient heating system, and the HVAC installer told him to bypass that extra efficiency and just run it the way his old electric furnace ran. By the way, electric furnaces have now been banned here with the adoption of our new Georgia energy code. Now we just have to teach owners - and installers - on the proper use of heat pumps. Do it like this! In short, if you have a heat pump with electric resistance heat as the supplemental heat source, keep the thermostat in the 'Heat' setting. Do NOT use the 'Emergency Heat' setting unless it's really an emergency; for example, when the heat pump doesn't work. You won't notice a difference in how well it heats your home, but you will notice a difference in your electricity bills.