I have a york heat pump and have had this problem for a long time now. I have repeatedly called out local "york service technician" who, so far, has been unable to resolve it. Here is what is happening. Back in the winter, we began using the heat pump to heat our house when one night we noticed the house was getting chilly but we still heard the blower running. I walked to the thermostat to look at it, and the red light was flashing. It would flash four times and stop, then repeat. Long story short, you can turn the unit off for awhile and turn it back on and it will work for awhile, days or hours it just depends, and then suddenly the blower will kick on but the compressor doesn't OR the compressor will stop and the blower won't, I am not sure which happens but one of the two. The blower will continue to run until the light starts. After calling the york guy out twice and him telling us there was nothing wrong, I just used the electric heat all winter. Now it is summer and the air conditioner is doing the same thing. Blows cold air, sometimes days and sometimes not even a whole day until this happens. Suddenly I will notice the house is not as cool as it should be and I hear the unit running so I know the air is coming through the vents so I will go to the thermostat and the light is flashing and the blower is running. Called the york guy out again and he hooked up his computer to it and did this and that; spent over an hour out there doing stuff and still said he couldn't find a problem except that it was low on refridgerant. He said that could cause the problem so he filled it up. It worked for a couple days and then messed up again so I called him back. He said that I probably had a refridgerant leak and he was going to have to tear my unit apart and find it (he said this without even seeing if it was actually low but he assumed it was.) Well that was four days ago and the problem with this guy is, you never know when he has been here or when he is coming, so I don't even know if he has shown up since the last time I talked to him. It is very frustrating and I just wish there was someone else around here to call but there isn't. What could this problem be and if there is something I can check then I will check it, just give me some advice and I will follow it. Thanks for reading.

I am designing a new home that will be built in Montana where it can be VERY cold. I was wondering if heating will be necessary in a basement that is used strictly for storage. The reason for this question is my father’s home in Montana has an unheated crawl space and his pipes never freeze. I can only assume that some of the heat from the first floor will keep the crawl space just warm enough to prevent pipe freezing. Another reason I prefer not to heat the basement is energy cost. Any thoughts?