Heat Pumps and Electric Heating - Red Light

Hi,
Quick question I was wondering if any of the gurus could answer.

For the first time ever I have seen the red light on my thermosat (Honeywell RTH7400D) come on during a heating cycle. I also noticed, that when the light came on the fan on the outside unit had stopped. The outside unit is a Carrier 38YCC heatpump

Is this normal as in this is a defrost cycle? The unit was nice and "wet" looking when I walked around to check it out, so I am thinking that may be the case.

I guess I am just concerned because this is the first time that I have seen the red light on the thermostat come on, and coincidentaly noticed that the fan on the outside unit was not spinning. That being said, this unit cooled perfectly all summer and has been providing heat without any issues so far.

Thanks,
Scott

troutster,
yum, i loves me some trout. oh anyways back to the question. when you turn on the heat in a heat pump/air handler system and the light goes on (could be one of several colors , sometimes two) what this means is that the system has put your heat pump into a defrost type of mode (which it seems the heat pump is off) and has turned the heat strips on at the air handler so you still get warm air. sometimes at the heat pump during this stage you may even see what appears to be smoking. don't panic, it is just "blowing off steam", melting off any ice that may have accumilated (i'm perrty sure i spelled that last word wrong).
it appears that your system is performing properly, just make sure that you keep it properly serviced thru-out the year. hope i was able to help, and hope you and yours had a great turkey day.

barry

Thanks! Guess I was just a little concerned seeing the red light for the first time ever.