Hello Again - some of you may recall my recent problems with a brand new Trane system - well, it's been a few weeks and I am having some difficulty again. The story:

It got down to 28 last night - my heat pump couldn't keep up so the aux strips came on when the temp got to 67 (thermo set on 69) - when the temp got down to 65, I realized the strips weren't getting it done either. So I switched it to emerg heat - well, the temp slowly crept back up to 69 over night.

So my question is, what is the difference in operation between the aux strips coming on and the emerg heat coming on?

Another question that may seem stupid but begs the question, are heat pumps so computerized now that sometimes they need to "reboot"? I got up this morning and turned the whole unit off for about 15 minutes and it is back on now - It was 68 when I turned it back on - the outdoor unit is on (one of my earlier problems) and I'm still at 68 degrees so it appears to be holding for now but not sure that it can sustain that without the strips just yet. Time will tell....oops....I just went to check and the outdoor unit just turned off with a big "sigh" - and there is a buzzing noise coming from the unit right now.

Houston, I think we have a problem...

 

rikmoor

Not to bore you but a heat pump is normally sized for cooling load in AC mode. As far as heat, the load is sized for your average low winter temperature and your family's comfort level(there are other factors as well)-what you normally set your thermostat at in the winter heating season. So for instance, you have a 3 ton heat pump and require 50,000 BTUs based on the Manual J heat/cool heating load calculation.So you need apprx 15,000 BTUs in auxilliary heat which will be your make-up heat strips. Your outside heat pump condenser along with your heat strips should be operating together on these extra cold days to maintain your home's inside temperature. Emergency heat is nothing more than your heat strips operating by themselves without your heat pump condenser.

Now to your situation. It does not appear that your HP is operating correctly. From your description, it does not seem that your heat strips are engaging as aux heat on these cold days but are working by themselves as emergency heat. This is not right. Call your installing dealer and have him schedule a visit on these cold days.

The question of rebooting is not an issue. This is not necessary. The sound you heard may have been your HP going into defrost mode which is normal-just a guess.

My opinion. Post back and let us know what they find.

 

TigerDunes-

Thanks for the reply. Do they really need to come out on a cold day to check this problem - living in coastal NC we don't get too many days like this. Couldn't they just crank the heat up a few notches to the point where the strips are supposed to come on and make sure they are?

As for calling my installing dealer, I'm probably not going to. Too many problems with them and they have proven to me, 100% without a doubt, that they are just that - installers. I have more diagnostic skills than their techs put together - and I got my training from the internet. It is time to suck it up and find a diagnostic tech rather than my installer.

A few minutes after my first post, my outside unit came on again - it is like the outdoor unit is cycling on and off every 5-10 minutes. The original problem was a faulty outdoor thermal expansion valve that was causing my outdoor unit to pull a vacuum and shut itself down - if it pulled a vacuum, the outdoor unit wouldn't try and come back on though would it?

Thanks again. I'm hoping to get someone out today to look at the problem.

 

I dissagree. Heat strips should be sized to take on the full heating load. Otherwise, they are useless as emergency backup and you have the problems rickmore describes. When the aux. heat kicks in, the temp should come up fast.

rickmore, I agree. It's time for an opinion from another HVAC company.

Doug M.

 

Almost forgot... The difference between emergency heat and auxiliary heat is that emergency heat locks out the heat pump and auxiliary heat lets it run. If it's going into defrost every 5 to 10 minutes, which is what it sounds like it's doing, (that "sigh" was the reversing valve) the heat pump is adding heating load (essentially going into cooling mode),so the strips have more to make up. This will probably also pull a ton of humidity out of your air and make it feel even colder.

Doug M.

 

Well, I had an amazing hvac guy out here today - at least he seemed it to me - but that could have had more to do with the guys I have been dealing with. This is what he found:

1- observation - the outdoor unit is messy - grease buildup from the freon charging the guys have been doing. He suspected they didn't have a shutoff valve on their fill hose/gauges which let a lot of freon out everytime they disconnect their gauges and/or charging apparatus.

2- observation - the "blanket" is not on my compressor - said this is more sound dampening than anything. But this is a brand new system - he expects clean AND all the parts and pieces to be there.

3- observation - I have a brick ranch house - my new ducts went from the crawl space into the attic - they knocked a brick out of the end of my house to pass the copper lines, etc through and just have them dangling out of this hole - and the copper lines are not flush mounted to the side of the house. There is pipe insulation around the copper, but he said what looks like a gutter downspoout should have been installed around this bundle of wires and pipes. And this down spout would fit in the hole in the brick to seal it from any varmints that try to get into my attic with the current configuration.

4- My thermostat was wired wrong - the way it was wired, the strips wouldn't come on to supplement my heat pump - they would only come on when set to emergency operation. So even when my aux light was on, the strips weren't working. Hene the house continuing to get colder with the aux light on.

5- the wire to my indoor unit fan was loose - almost completely off. I was downstairs near a register when he turned the unit back on after tightening this wire - I thought it was going to blow me down. This unit has never blown so much air. He said it looked like they had tried to adjust the fan speed somehow, but I didn't really understand it. But he said they check over the entire unit when they do new install because things can come loose in shipping.

How do I proceed from here:

I am going to have my county inspector come back and explain why he passed this install with the copper pipes hanging/dangling out of my attic with an unsealed hole into it. When I get the failed inspection, I will call my installer, explain everything and give him the opportunity to fix this or I'll have it done from someone competent and deduct this from what I owe him. I will also let him come over and provide me with the blanket for my compressor.

On top of this, I have documented everything in writing and with photos. I am going to send Trane a letter - I am going to send the Better Business Bureau a letter - and I am going to deduct the amount of this service call today from the amount I still owe my original installer.

Today I am so happy that this system appears to be fully functional and operation and I have not had this much confidence that it will be a good system over the long haul. I truly was thinking I may have to go through this again in a few years. At the same time, I have never been so disgusted in all my life. You would think spending this kind of money you could expect a little better service and competency. And a life-lesson has been learned yet again - I got 3 bids and took the cheapest one - sometimes you get what you pay for.

And once again, I apologize for the length of this post. You should have read the last series of posts before this thing ever started working!!

 

You ALWAYS get what you pay for.