Recently my husband and I bought our first home here in Eastern North Carolina. Being from the North neither of us has experience with heat pumps. When the temp dropped in Decmeber we found out our main heat pump was not heating the house. - We have two heat pumps, one in the original part of the house built in 1955, and one in the master suite add on. Our warranty company put us in touch with a technician they work with and he came out to take a look. He had my husband turn both thermastats up all the way and then went to work on both units. (note the unit for the bedroom worked fine, it was like a sauna in here) He determined that the evaproative coils needed cleaning. Our warranty company claimed that it wasn't covered due to improper maintenance by the previous owners. I argued that a warranty should protect the buyers but they still said no. While I argued with the warranty people the tech went to work "cleaning" the coil for the bedroom unit. When my husband went out to tell him we were going to hold off on the cleaning in informed my husband the bedroom unit would be a "freebie cleaning". We thought we were lucky until we found out that neither unit works now. We are trying to get a second opinion as I have reservations that the cleaning will fix the problem considering he "cleaned" the one and it doesn't work now. (again I note that it worked before he messed with it). Any suggestions or info is greatly appreciated. We are a young military family and funds are pretty tight. The temp is dropping again after all this abnormal high temps and we have a 3 year old that doesn't understand why bundling up is beneficial. Thank you in advance! Andrea

 

Hi,
While I can't offer any advice about the cleaning situation, from the title of your post "heat pump blowing cold air", you do realize that a heat pump does blow what feels like cold air when the temp drops. Even when the temps aren't all that low, the air coming from the register always feels cool. That's the nature of a heat pump. When you say the one that was cleaned doesn't work, do you mean it doesn't run at all, or are you feeling the cool air? While I'm no expert, it's possible that since it needed cleaning the unit was going into emergency heat because the heat pump wasn't functioning normally. Someone correct me if that is wrong. If it was going into auxiliary/emergency heat, the air coming out of the registers would feel warm and now that it's cleaned it feels cool because that's the normal function. I hope that helps you a bit. We're a retired military family and I know how tight money can be. Good Luck!

Calilou

 

Check and see if he turned the airhandler off to clean it and never turned it back on "there may be like a light switch on the air handler itsself" also check the breakers.. Once we get them running we can figure out why you're not heating.

 

Last night I turned on the emergency/aux heat on advice from a friend and grandfather. We went to bed an awoke to a house that is 50 degrees!! I understand that it blows cold air but it is not even a little bit warm, it is cold. Please help if you can. Where should I be looking for the switch? Andrea

 

So the heat pump is actually running when it's not in emergency heat? I live in Virginia and when it gets cold like it's been the last few nights, the heat pump blows "cold" air. It doesn't feel at all warm, but it does cycle in and out of auxiliary heat which warms it a bit then goes back into normal mode. Although, when it goes back into normal mode the temp drops back down. It's sort of a vicious cycle in weather like we're having now. I do think it's strange you're getting cold air when it's in emergency heat. It should be somewhat warm, although not "toasty" like your probably used to with other types of heat.

Good Luck

 

LeesAngel96 I dont know where to start here for you. First are there any breakers there maked for the AC or heatpump right on the units or in the electric panel are they on?. if it ran before he came Id call him back for sure. If you turn the tstat to fan on will the fan come on???? Post back in this same post what more you find .

ED

 

I will have to check the breakers and the fan issue. I am at work right now so it will have to wait until my lunch break. I lucked out and a co-worker has a good friend who does heating and cooling. After speaking to him and filling him in on everything he said that it truely doesn't sound right. He is supposed to make it out to our house to look at it today. At this point I have lost faith in the other guy and after leaving a few messages with no response I am getting a bit irritated. I ran to the store and bought a space heater and we have opted to keep our 3 year old in bed with us until someone can look at it/fix it if possible. Waking up to a house that wasn't below 50 degrees was nice. Is it possible to keep my existing heat pump system for ac in the summer and do another form of heat like a furnace? I am not sure how this works. Thanks!! Andrea

 

AS to cost there go to http://www.warmair.net and compare fuel cost for right there where you are first and see what is best.I think I fix the unit you have for now.

ED

 

Well turns out our units are 20 years old there is a debate as to whether or not these units are needing to be replace due to sheer age. BUT good news is we have heat. The heat coils were switched off in one unit. He believes the other unit has a broken line between the thermostat and unit or a problem in the thermostat itself. He is gone next week so he will be back the following to move forward on that issue. I am just thankful that we have heat in a portion of the house!!

 

Just kick it around::::: We look at AC units as 15 years tops and they are done for. But I know of just one that is running at 39 years. Now a heat pump they run both winter and summer so life for them is like 7 1/2 years.
Now you say yours are 20 years old now so take it from there. The new heat pumps have a higher SEER like on up to 17.00 for cool and a HSPF of 10.55 for heat.
Kick it all around and do get 3 bids for the job.

ED

 

Howdy
Sorry to hear about your troubles. It sounds like you have got someone to look at it and that is good. You do have heat and that is good. I live in Wilmington is that close to you.