No heat

I have a heat pump with natural gas backup. This morning when I got up the temp was at 59 degrees and nothing but the blower running. The thermostat said backup was on.

I turned the temp down until it turned off. Then only raised it to 61 degrees. I was expecting the heat pump to come on but it didn't. It went directly to backup system.

Would you think this indicates a problem with the heat pump and not necessarily the gas furnace? Is the HP not telling the furnace to come on? Or does the thermostat directly control the backup unit? The HP has a thermocouple mounted to the outside wall. I was told it would automatically switch over to gas at a certain temp. That is why I'm thinking the HP isn't working correctly. Right now the outside temp is 25 degrees.

Thanks,
Rut

 

When you have a heat pump and gas furnace running together it's called a dual fuel system. Both cannot run at the same time. When the room temperature is more than 3 degrees below the setpoint..... the heat pump is shut down and the furnace is called for. Now..... you have an outdoor reset sensor. That has been set to disable the heat pump and just use the furnace at a certain temperature. Are you below that temperature ?

The problem appears to be the furnace has a problem.

 

Looks like you are correct. The outside temp rose to 45 and the heat pump is now working. I couldn't find a setting in the thermostat that controlled when the switch occurs. Guess I'll be calling the maintenance person in the morning.