I bought my house this summer, and I've only been using the heat for about a week now. I have a typical 5 ton heat pump system and Honeywell thermostat. I understand that the electric aux heat is supposed to kick in if I raise the thermostat 3 degrees or more above the current temp.

Problem is, the aux heat is kicking on if I raise it just ONE degree above what it is currently set at. This is very annoying, since I turn it way down at night and back up when I wake up. I have to stand there and babysit the thermostat turning it up 1 degree at a time. It's not that cold outside -50s/60s so far. I understand the aux heat will warm the house faster, but I'm not in that much of a hurry. The air coming out of the vents is plenty warm with just heat pump mode.

Why is the aux heat turning on so quickly? Is there something wrong with the thermostat? Could I wire a simple toggle switch into the aux heat wire, so that aux heat cannot run unless I manually turn the switch on? 99% of the time aux heat is never needed in my climate. (North Carolina) As far as I know there is no outdoor temp sensor in my system.

 

Hi, what is the model of the Tstat?
Geo

 

So heat pumps are similar to my GEO thermal.

The big learning we had is that you cant dial back the temps at night and expect the system to recover in a short amount of time like a gas furnace.

It simply does not have the capacity to do so without long run times or kicking on the aux heat.

Currently we just leave it at set temp and enjoy the overall cost savings of having the unit rum minimally!

 

That recovery is all based on the thermostat. Most toggle on 3° and some will toggle on 1° but wait a certain amount of time. You may be able to reprogram that stat or replace it with one that will operate more to your liking.

Yes.... you could also put a switch on the reheats.

 

Interesting...I didn't know there might be a setting for that. I can't find one in my t-stat, but I do plan on replacing it with a touch screen wifi model soon. Maybe that will have the setting. I can't find the model on the one I have now, it's one of the first generation of "touch screen" style. (monochrome, and very basic)

Just switch the wire that goes to the AUX port on the thermostat? The t-stat is mounted right next to the air return, and the control wires run down behind the vent cover. I could hide a little switch in there really easily, just behind the air filter. It really is quite rare here to actually need the aux heat.

I know it can take a long time to heat up in heat pump only mode, but I'm not really in a hurry. I'd like to just leave the temp alone but this house is poorly insulated and a big part of it has 16 foot ceilings - lots of cubic feet to heat! Trying to fight the electric bill down a bit - the local power coop prices are obscene. From what I can tell the heat pump is responsible for more than half of my electric bill. I'm single and it just drives me crazy hearing the heat pump run at night when all I need to heat is my small bedroom.

The other issue is I can't use the schedule feature on the t-stat, if it automatically turns itself up then the aux heat will always come on.

I admit it, I'm cheap.