Lone Star Cooling and Heating
Get help with Heat Pumps
Call Lone Star Cooling and Heating, have us call you, or describe the issue.
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Call (325) 219-0005Heat pumps that heat and cool by moving heat instead of burning fuel, diagnosed when they fall short, matched to the local winter, and replaced or installed in place of an older furnace and air conditioner.
01Heat pumps
Some of what a heat pump does in winter looks like a fault and is not. These are the common situations.
When the heat pump cannot hold the rooms at the setting, the cause may be a failed part outdoors, a system stuck in the wrong mode, a refrigerant leak, or backup heat that is not coming on in cold weather. Diagnosis starts at the thermostat and the outdoor unit.
In cooling mode a heat pump works the way an air conditioner does and fails in similar ways: an outdoor unit that has stopped, a clogged filter, an iced indoor coil or a leak. The same checks apply, with the valve that switches its direction added to the list.
A sharp rise without a change in the weather often means the backup heat is doing work the heat pump should be doing. Backup heat costs more to run, so the reason the heat pump has dropped out is worth finding.
A heat pump delivers a long, steady flow of warm air rather than the short hot bursts of a furnace, so vents that feel mildly warm are normal. Air that feels cold, or rooms that keep losing ground, point at a fault.
In cold weather a heat pump is designed to run long, even cycles and may barely switch off. If the rooms stay at the setting, that is usually how it should behave. If they drift below it, something is holding the system back.
02Urgency
A heat pump that falls a little behind can usually wait. Losing heat in freezing weather cannot.
None of this is a repair. Each step keeps people safe and the equipment from further harm until it is looked at.
Switch the system off at the thermostat, and at its breaker if the panel is safe to reach. Leave it off until a technician has looked at it.
A breaker that trips again after one reset is reacting to a fault. Leave it off and mention it when calling.
Older people, infants and anyone with a health condition are at real risk in a cold building. Move them to a warmer room or building while the heat is out.
Heat Pumps
Serving Abilene, TX.
03How it works
A heat pump is built much like an air conditioner, with one extra valve that lets it run in reverse.
In cooling mode, refrigerant picks up heat from the indoor air at the indoor coil and releases it outside. In heating mode a reversing valve changes the direction of flow, so the outdoor coil gathers heat from the outside air and the indoor coil gives it off to the building. Even cold air holds usable heat, which is why the system can still warm a building on a chilly day.
The colder it gets, the less heat there is to gather and the harder the heat pump works to deliver it. Its output falls as the temperature drops while the building loses heat faster, and at some point the two lines cross. Below that point backup heat makes up the difference, usually electric elements in the indoor unit or, on some systems, a gas furnace. How often that happens depends on the local winter and the equipment.
04Replace or switch
The work looks similar from the outside. The questions behind it are different.
The building already heats with a heat pump, so the ducts, wiring and backup heat are in place. The questions are whether the old system was sized correctly, whether the indoor unit should be replaced too so the two halves are matched, and whether a model built for colder weather would cut how often the backup runs.
The heat pump takes the place of the outdoor air conditioner and can take over most or all of the heating. The heating load has to be calculated, because in colder climates it is often larger than the cooling load the old equipment was sized for. The ducts, the electrical supply and whether the furnace stays as backup are settled before anything is ordered.
05Does it suit
Whether a heat pump is a good fit comes down to a few things about the place and the building.
In mild and moderate climates a heat pump can carry most of the heating on its own. Where winters are long and hard, a model designed for cold climates, a larger role for backup heat, or both keep the building comfortable.
Electric elements are simple to add to the indoor unit but cost more to run. Where a building already has gas, a furnace can serve as the backup instead, which changes how the whole system is set up and controlled.
A heat pump moves a steady volume of air, so ducts that leak or are too small hold it back. A building moving off gas heat may also need new circuits or more electrical capacity to carry the heat pump and its backup.
06Questions
It depends on the climate and the equipment. A heat pump loses capacity as the outdoor air gets colder, and models built for cold climates hold their output much further down than older designs. In most places it is paired with backup heat that helps out or takes over on the coldest days.
It means the backup heat is running alongside the heat pump, most often electric heating elements in the indoor unit. It comes on by itself when the heat pump cannot keep up and while the outdoor unit defrosts. Seeing it now and then is normal. Seeing it most of the time is worth having checked.
Often, yes. A heat pump takes the place of the outdoor air conditioner and can use the existing ducts if they are sound and large enough for the airflow it needs. A technician works out the heating load of the building and checks the ducts and the electrical supply before settling the size and whether to keep the furnace as backup.
A smell of gas, a carbon monoxide alarm, a burning electrical smell, or no heat or cooling in dangerous weather: urgent. A system that runs longer than it used to, a new noise or one room that is off: worth a visit soon, but not tonight.
If it smells of burning, is leaking water, or the outdoor unit is humming without its fan turning, yes: switch it off at the thermostat. A system that runs but does not keep up can usually stay on until it is looked at.
What the system is doing, when it started, what the thermostat is set to and what it reads, and whether the outdoor unit is running. The age of the equipment and a photo of its label help a technician arrive prepared.
Lone Star Cooling and Heating
Call Lone Star Cooling and Heating, have us call you, or describe the issue.
Prefer to talk?
Call (325) 219-0005