Heat Pumps in Freezing Weather
“Should I turn my heat pump to emergency heat when it drops below freezing?”
A heat pump can actually pull heat out of the air as long as there is heat in the air. So if it is 32, 31, 30 degrees outside the heat pump will still be able to work. Now, it will bring on the backup heat or emergency heat to help it achieve what temperature, you want in the house but it does not stop from working below freezing.
When it gets 32 or 30 outside to turn your heat pump off and turn it to emergency heat only would be a mistake. I would not do that because it can still extract heat from the air and bring it into the home. Now the electrical backup heat will be running more often because chances are that you have the inside set to 68 or 70 degrees on the thermostat. You will need that backup heat to help it achieve that temperature but it is still going to operate the heat pump when possible.
Leave the heat pump on and yes your emergency or backup heat will be working to achieve that indoor temperature and what will also happen with those kinds of temperatures is it will go through the defrost cycle more often.
If you look outside at your unit you might see steam coming out from the heat pump and it’s because it is on the defrost cycle. As it pulls the hot air out of the cold air it does frost over that outdoor coil, so it goes through a defrost cycle which melts that frost off. Steam comes up because of the outdoor temperature and that is normal operation.
Leave the heat pump on, leave your temperatures set to where you are comfortable, there is nothing special you need to do in that situation.
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