Heat cannot handle this cold weather

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any lifestyle enhancing $ is throwing ,money out the window by that logic. It's called AUX heat for auxiliary in some systems. Switching to AUX in prolonged cold periods saves wear on heat pump.

Electric motors wear out from stopping and starting. Running continuously is better for them than cycling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any lifestyle enhancing $ is throwing ,money out the window by that logic. It's called AUX heat for auxiliary in some systems. Switching to AUX in prolonged cold periods saves wear on heat pump.

Electric motors wear out from stopping and starting. Running continuously is better for them than cycling.

+1
Your heat pump will run and not provide a target heat, but a differential. That's all you're going to get in this very cold weather.
But this weather is very rare and unusual for this area. It's stupid to have top of the line heat in DC. Your AC is more important.

Insulation is king of all! I wonder how to retroactively insulate a house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any lifestyle enhancing $ is throwing ,money out the window by that logic. It's called AUX heat for auxiliary in some systems. Switching to AUX in prolonged cold periods saves wear on heat pump.

Electric motors wear out from stopping and starting. Running continuously is better for them than cycling.

So is it better to have the house set to a higher temp (like 67), than something like 65 in very cold temps?

I get that the electrical bill will be higher... but long term maintenance costs... better from not wearing out the motor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any lifestyle enhancing $ is throwing ,money out the window by that logic. It's called AUX heat for auxiliary in some systems. Switching to AUX in prolonged cold periods saves wear on heat pump.

Electric motors wear out from stopping and starting. Running continuously is better for them than cycling.

So is it better to have the house set to a higher temp (like 67), than something like 65 in very cold temps?

I get that the electrical bill will be higher... but long term maintenance costs... better from not wearing out the motor?

Producing more heat isn't harder on the heat pump.

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of heat pumps. There are single-stage heat pumps that always run at the same speed, and modulating heat pumps that can vary the compressor speed.

A single-stage heat pump varies its output by turning on when heat is needed and turning off when the thermostat's setting has been met. It will run more of the time when it's being asked to produce more heat, but the number of on/off cycles doesn't change meaningfully.

A modulating heat pump varies its output by varying the compressor speed. It will have a minimum output, if the heating load is below that minimum it behaves just like a single-speed. If the heating load is above the minimum it will run continuously. If it's running continuously the load doesn't really affect it.