HVAC service tech here,I ask alot of questions and get awesome fast help with my Atv problems so i thought I could offer some assistance to the people that contribute to this great forum.
I dont have any oil heating experience but for straight cool,heat pumps and some natural gas heating i may be able to help.
And if I can't answer your question,i have some really grat resources to ask, but i am always honest and if I don't know, I won't try to BS you...hope i can help because being without A/C is almost as bad as a quad that you can't ride.

Bill

 

I know that this topic is completely un-atv related and I was actually scratching my head when I read the title...but...I was actually talking about this last weekend. We live in Ohio had a 13 seer heat pump and electric furnace installed three years ago...now my question. At what temperature am I wasting money even running the heat pump? There has to be a point where I am using more energy running the heat pump than it is saving by producing heat. I asked the same question to the installer and he told me that it should run all the time. He claims it is always helping some. With the electric furnace elements coming on when needed it seems like eventually it should just run on the furnace! My brother had a new system installed that automatically shuts the heat pump off and furnace only at like 35 degrees or something. Anyhow-I won't be using the furnace for a few months so...any advice would be put to use come fall!

 

ok, kinda a long answer but here goes, a heat pump should be used all the time for heating because that set up is your primary heating.
What you will typically find is that heat pumps run and produce heat until until the refrigerant ( freon) reaches the freezing point ( just like water ) that is determined by two things, the air temp inside and out.
If the air temp outside is cold ( low heat load) then the pressure of the refrigerant drops and depending on what type of refrigerant your a/c has ( typically R-22 for slightly older systems) the Outside coil will begin to freeze causing the system to go into "defrost mode" if this takes awhile to defrost the coil and the thermostat sensing indoor temperature drop by two or three degrees ( depending on t-stat and set points) this turns on the electric heats strips automatically until the defrost cycle is complete then the electric strips shut off and heating is produced by the indoor and outdoor units.
A heat pump has a reversing valve that allows the refrigerant cycle to run the opposite way during heating and cooling, if you notice the during the summer in cooling mode,the outdoor unit ( condensor) is discharging warm air and the indoor unit ( air handler/furnace) is cool, with a heat pump in the heating mode, the reverse is true because the refrigerant is flowing in reverse picking up whatever heatload it can from outside air temp as well as hot gas discharge from the compressor which in turn warm the indoor coil producing warm air inside your home.
Usually when the system goes into defrost when heating,you will hear the system sound different and the outdoor unit fan ( condensor fan motor) will turn off.
Long story short as possible, run your heat pump as normal, only use the electric heat strips manually from the t-stat if the outdoor unit has a failure because usually the electric heat strips are not large enough ( 5kw) to truely heat you home and will not satisy the temp setting on your thermostat causing the unit to run constantly.

 

Well this is educational.

 

No kidding.

Place I work at part time had the units frost over a couple of times this winter. They called out the hvac people and they said it was normal.

Next year, they can just pay me and I can explain why it is.