I have a three year old heat pump. It is connected to a programmable thermostat that is not used to alter the temp... always set at 68°. My question is, the heat pump seems to run forever and a day. The stat is reading 68° but it continues to run for what I think is an excessive amount of time.... shouldnt it shut down once the temp reads the setpoint? Do I have a bad stat? Should I go back to just a regular "unprogramable" stat? Thanks for any thoughts!

I have a heat pump unit (electric Payne air handler upstairs and Carrier compressor outside). This morning while the heat was on, the compressor blades stopped turning and the unit was just humming. I turned the heat off to stop the unit(s). I turned it back on a couple of minutes later and the outside unit just hummed. After turning it off and waiting around 10 minutes I turned up the heat and it all worked. Does anyone have any idea why it was working that way? I had checked the outside unit and it wasn't frozen, but there was a lot of condensation all on ground around the unit. Even though it is working now, I want to know if there is a possible problem so I can be prepared. Thanks in advance. Jon