How heat pump works
It is essential to understand that, for both heating and cooling, heat pumps transfer heat from one area to another. It draws heat energy from the outside air throughout colder months and moves it inside to heat your home. And to cool you off in the summer, the heat pump takes heat energy from inside your home and releases it outside.
The heat pump consists of an outdoor condensing unit and an indoor air handler unit as a split system. The outdoor heat pump condensing unit circulates refrigeration for heat transfer like a central air conditioning unit. Thanks to the reversing valve, a heat pump can change and reverse the refrigerant flow. This means it has two different functions: cooling your home in the summertime and heating it during the winter months!
For heating mode, the refrigerant in the outdoor condenser absorbs the heat energy from the outdoor air. Then it is pressurized and heated in the compressor to become a vapor or a gas. After this, it is sent to the inside air handler unit. The vaporized refrigerant is transported to the indoor unit coil. The cold air from your home is blown over the coil and absorbs the heat.
How Electric Element works in the heat pump system
Inside the air handler is an electric heating element. This electric heating element also referred to as electric resistance heating, is a supplemental heating source. Depending on the model of your heat pump, auxiliary heat and emergency heat are both functions of the electric heating element. Relying on the electric heating element to heat your home is expensive, which is why it can cause a bit of worry to creep in when the homeowner sees auxiliary heat on the thermostat.
You need your heat pump to keep working for your house to remain warm. If your heat pump freezes, this can be a serious problem. The E-Top Heat pump thermostat perfectly support emergency heat in every system today.
What Is Auxiliary Heat?
It is helpful to mention: Auxiliary heat and emergency heat are both thermostat settings for activating the electric resistance heating element. However, their capabilities differ slightly based on the heat pump system model. For example, some systems only have auxiliary heat mode, while others offer an emergency heat mode. For this reason, people may refer to auxiliary heat and emergency heat interchangeably.
The role of the auxiliary heater is to work in conjunction with your heating system to keep your home warm when the outside temperature is too cold for the heat pump system to be efficient on its own. The thermostat automatically activates the auxiliary heating when the desired temperature is not met by the heat pump system alone.
After either five, ten, or twenty minutes of your thermostat not reaching the set temperature, your thermostat automatically activates the auxiliary heat. Some thermostats can be set manually, although many come pre-programmed for when to turn on the auxiliary heat. The auxiliary heat will only shut off once the thermostat has reached its set temperature.
If auxiliary heat stays on for an extended period of time, this is usually a sign that there is something wrong with your heating system.
