Senior Needs Help w/Heating Questions

[Raul Ferrer]

I am a non technical senior who needs help with a heating problem. I have a split system heat pump here in Dallas. The Heating & A/C folks told me (when I moved in 7 yrs ago) to set my thermostat on "EM" vs on "heat". I guess emergency (EM) is more efficient/economical ??? Am I doing the right thing?

2. Last year, professionals checked the system and found it to be fine. The problem I have is that the system will not turn on when it gets cold. Example: I woke up to a house temp of 61 degrees yet the system was set at 69 degrees. Later that day, the system kicked on.... it did take about several hours to reach 69 degrees... This has happened two days in a row... I also noticed that during the time it did not work, that it "tried" to work... it kicked on and then quickly turned off.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!

[coolwhip]

Call a repair man so you can have heat when you need it.

[dash]

1.)Em(emergency heat) turns the compressor off and uses the back up as heat,usually electric strips,more costly.

In your area heating months would likely have lower bills then cooling months,if using the heat pump compresssor to heat.



2.)Starting and then stopping,could be low on refrigerant,or many other things.

I'd run it on EM ,until your tech comes out to check it out.

[coolguysfl]

Unless you have a unique control.. the EM means Emergency heat. The only reason you'd want to do this manually is if your heat pump has failed in some fashion - the EM renders only the back up Emergency heat to operate.

Assuming this is the case - you'll have higher much utility bills than normal.

Short of changing the air filter (you have changed the filter - right?) - you have no choice but to call a competent HVAC service co. They'll get to the bottom of this & restore heat for you.