Failed reversing valve and heating

[tostaky]

Hi !

My compressor has been change 3 months ago. The tech told me that the reversing valve must have cause the failure of the compressor because it was stuck between heat and cold (Lennox heatpump). He told me that the reversing valve will also have to be change one day but he manage to get It work by tapping on it. All summer long I've set my thermostat to cold and nothing have been wrong. I also got 2-3 power failure and the reversing valve still be in cold mode (It's my guess because the heatpump still give cold air after all the pwer failures).

Now that cold weather approch (I live in Montreal, Canada) i'm asking myself what to do. I don't have the money now to repair the reversing valve. The importnat part for me about my Heatpump is that this unit can deliver cold air when needed. For heating I've got an furnace that work very well. So if i put my TStat on ''emergency heat'' I supposed that the heat will only came from the furnace and that the heatpump would be inactive all winter long and that the reversing valve will still be on cold mode on the next summer. Is it right ? Can anyone suggest another way to do this ?

Thanks a lot !

[Shophound]

Yes, you can run your system on emergency heat all winter, meaning the heat pump will not run. And being the reversing valve is stuck in cooling, it probably will still be that way next summer.

Question is...you basically now have straight a/c and a furnace (gas?), and will get no heating benefit from the heat pump in milder weather. This may or may not be an issue, depending on how much your furnace fuel costs you vs. running the heat pump (electric rates). You will need to weigh this out; if your heating costs shoot way up this winter by running only the furnace, you are losing economic benefit from the heat pump not being able to heat.

[tostaky]

Thanks for your answer !

There's something i've think about. My furnace is eletrical. I don,t have any idea the amount I could save using the heatpump insted the furnace, but what I know is that before having an Heatpump I was always using the furnace, so my electricty bill reflects that fact.

[Shophound]

Well, there you go. Weigh the cost to get the reversing valve replaced against the increased cost you'll pay running the furnace on electric heat only.

[hvacvegas]

Get it replaced. The cost of running electric heat all winter in your area is going to be scary.

[t527ed]

Get it replaced. The cost of running electric heat all winter in your area is going to be scary.

+1 probably cheaper to borrow the money or put it on a credit card than to heat with straight electric.