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I'm wondering if it is just our dumb luck? Or if others are having similar issues?
We bought our home in Durham a few months ago and it has a heat pump. In that short time we've had to have it serviced about 4 times.
Tonight we find out the transformer went. Another time it was a computer part, and so on. Additionally my husband has had to replace fuses once and on a couple of occasions it has tripped the breakers & those needed reset.
Did we just get a lemon of a unit w/the house?
Or are others having similar problems? Are heat pumps not really designed to deal with this much cold weather?
And if my first theory (lemon) is right. What types of units are folks having good luck with? Who did you purchase from? And who do you use for service?
My information has it heat pumps were not intended for temps below 30ish. Ours runs for what seems like forever. Many folks supplement with a fireplace or other propane heater. I understand that the typical life expectancy of a hp is about 10 years? Ours will hit that milestone this year in June.
If your unit is newer I would wonder about the quality. We see a lot of the old style hp being replaced with the all-in-one units that are suppose to be more effecient for the weather we have seen in the Triangle area the last few years.
our heat pump is way older than that and works ok (i guess) but we do keep a space heater in the family room to help out. we prefer the bedrooms cooler, anyways....
While they do not operate as efficiently in colder weather they aren't supposed to blow up on a regular basis either. We have two units, both 16 years old, and in the five years we have lived here the only repair has been to replace a transformer last winter.
One of our units has gas back-up heat, but I am not convinced that it is a big money saver unless you have a gas water heater or other appliances, too. With the little gas we use with just the back-up furnace, the $10/month distribution charge basically doubles or triples the cost of the gas.
Additionally my husband has had to replace fuses once and on a couple of occasions it has tripped the breakers & those needed reset.
This is not a good sign regardless of the performance issues of your unit.
Fuses blow and breakers trip because something is drawing more power than the circuit wiring can safely handle.
It could be the compressor, fan motor, starting capacitor, or the circuit breaker and wiring simply might not be sized correctly for the load. If the fuses keep blowing and breakers continue to trip, it is telling you there is an unsafe electrical condition that should not be ignored and the root cause must be determined and corrected before worse things happen.
If the unit keeps freezing over and doesn't defrost you need to have them increase your defrost frequency. I had mine lowered from 90 to 50 mins. That might be why it keeps blowing fuses.
If the previous owners had that issue I assume they would've replaced it, did you get a warranty when you bought your house? If not I would seriously consider replacing, 4 repairs in as many months with breakers continually tripping would be incredibly annoying, not to mention a huge hint of an underlying problem. Time for a real professional, as it's possible putting a new unit in might still blow fuses (issue might not be the heat pump).
Also make sure you have enough insulation, I recently doubled the insulation in my house (and brought it up to R50) for a cost of only $280. I have a 2000 sq ft house. We noticed immediately how much less my heat pumps (two units) run. Less run time = less chance you are burning it out.
Mine seems to work fine. I've been living here about eight years. Within months of moving in, the thing outside with the fan (I don't know what that's called) had to be replaced. During the last snow after Christmas, it actually started making a LOUD noise, and I had to turn it off. When the repair man came, it stopped--and didn't do it again. It could have been caused by dirty air filters, or just a little snow getting into something. It's fine now.
Basically, mine does fine. In extreme cold weather things are a little cool. Otherwise, it works fine. It even gets too warm upstairs if I turn it up too high. I keep mine set at about 70.
I understand that the typical life expectancy of a hp is about 10 years? Ours will hit that milestone this year in June.
If your unit is newer I would wonder about the quality.
We were told that the unit is 8 years old. I didn't get any paperwork or maintenence history. They did at least leave us the manual.
Quote:
Originally Posted by suedonym
we do keep a space heater in the family room to help out
Thanks for the idea. I'll pick up a couple for the living room & kitchen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wheelsup
If the unit keeps freezing over and doesn't defrost you need to have them increase your defrost frequency. I had mine lowered from 90 to 50 mins. That might be why it keeps blowing fuses.
The service tech is coming back out today and I'll ask him about that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wheelsup
did you get a warranty when you bought your house? If not I would seriously consider replacing, 4 repairs in as many months with breakers continually tripping would be incredibly annoying, not to mention a huge hint of an underlying problem. Time for a real professional, as it's possible putting a new unit in might still blow fuses (issue might not be the heat pump).
Yes, our realator insisted on a buyers insurance policy. Even so we pay $100 out of pocket for each service call before they take over, so it is adding up. And it is only for the first year. So if we are going to have this one replaced I guess we better hurry up & do it before that runs out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wheelsup
Also make sure you have enough insulation, I recently doubled the insulation in my house (and brought it up to R50) for a cost of only $280. I have a 2000 sq ft house. We noticed immediately how much less my heat pumps (two units) run. Less run time = less chance you are burning it out.
We've checked and some areas (attic, crawl space) do have insulation but I know we have other things to address like old (30+ year) windows and weather stripping on the doors to be replaced. We are slowly working our way through these things. In the new home this is a big learning curve for us so probably takes us longer than the average person on a lot of these projects.
If anyone has a company/person that they could recommend please let me know. I plan to get a couple estimates before we make a final decision. I'd rather use someone recommended than just a random name out of the phone book. Thanks!
Yes, our realator insisted on a buyers insurance policy. Even so we pay $100 out of pocket for each service call before they take over, so it is adding up. And it is only for the first year. So if we are going to have this one replaced I guess we better hurry up & do it before that runs out.
Note that home warranties will generally cover only the cost of the actual unit being replaced and the labor associated with it. Our heat pump blew up about six months after we bought our house, and (after wrangling with the home warranty company as they tried to deny the claim entirely) we still had to shell out $800 to pay for the permits, a new pad for the unit, some ductwork modifications to interface with the new air handler, etc.
A lot cheaper than having to pay for the whole thing outright, but still a significant outlay or cash.
You kind of need to keep going through your home warranty company for these issues, but stress to them that the continued issues are unacceptable and demand that they be resolved. Four service calls in just a few months is certainly excessive, and I'd try to press them to consider them a single issue that hasn't been properly resolved, hoping to get them to stop charging you for each service call.
We've checked and some areas (attic, crawl space) do have insulation but I know we have other things to address like old (30+ year) windows and weather stripping on the doors to be replaced. We are slowly working our way through these things. In the new home this is a big learning curve for us so probably takes us longer than the average person on a lot of these projects.
You may have insulation but probably not nearly enough. Back when your house was built chances are code was for an R20 or R25 in the attic. Now it's a minimum of R38 for our area up to R60 (preferred). Because of how heat flows, inadequate attic insulation contributes to the biggest heat loss.
In my experience with older homes, windows make very little difference in energy consumption. Window makers try to steer your toward them but I have seen old single pane windows in homes with excellent attic insulation require very little heat/cooling costs. One inexpensive thing to do with older windows is use a fairly robust window treatment/curtain keeping the cold out of the room.
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