Heat Pumps and Electric Heating - How to tell if I have a heat pump.

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henthorn
01-18-07, 02:25 PM
I have been in this house since July. We have been having a cold spell in Texas and the house doesn't heat as well as it should. I just noticed that the condenser/fan thingy outside is running all the time the heat is on. Does this mean that I have a heat pump?

marksr
01-18-07, 02:36 PM
Welcome to the diy forums

I'm not a HVAC guy but I don't believe the outside unit would run in heat mode if not a heat pump. HP don't heat quite like other forms of heat. Instead of sending in hot air for a short time, they run longer sending out warm air.
henthorn
01-18-07, 03:34 PM
Thanks for the reply. That is what I thought but I have never had any experience with heat pumps.

Ed Imeduc
01-18-07, 03:53 PM
Sounds like you have a heat pump there. Now down the line the outside unit can ice up and can be like a big ice ball. later on it should go into a defrost mode. where it goes back to a AC unit . When it does this the EME heat will come on so as not to blow cold air into the home. Also at this time the outside unit can look like it is smoking. This will be steam comeing off it.