College townhouse is always freezing cold

[VTHokies11]

Hello everyone,

I go to college in the mountains of Virginia (Virginia Tech) and the house I'm in has terrible problems with heating. I'm young and not the greatest with HVAC, but I'll do my best to explain everything.

I live in a 2-story townhome that's about 750 sqft and it uses an electric heat pump for its heating and cooling. I keep the thermostat at 65F, yet the heat remains running for up to 3 hours at a time. As a cheap college student, this is very expensive and I can't help but think that 3 hours of running is abnormal. Also, when it runs for 3 hours, the thermostat will click off for about 5 minutes, and then it will resume running for another 3 hours.

I have sealed off the windows with shrinkwrap plastic and installed a little doorsweep on the bottom of the front door, yet these problems still remain. I used a thermometer to measure the temperature of the air exiting the (ceiling) vents and that was about 74F.

Do you have any suggestions of what I should do? Hearing the heat pump run constantly bothers me because I just know that it will result in a massive heating bill. Thanks for any input.

[im4snow2000]

Tell your landlord the heat pump won't stop running to satisfy the thermostat in relatively mild weather (ie, far from dead of winter).

[yellowirenut]

not there, just a flying guess....sound like your secondary heat is not kicking in. Does the T-stat have a "emergency heat" switch?

You need to aether call the landlord if renting or call a reliable HVAC contractor to send out a tech.

[2coolornot2cool]

The system may not be charged correctly with refrigerant. On average the temp comming out of the vents should be 17 degrees higher than the temp in the room. Your equipment is running poorly if it is taking that long for the thermostat to satisfy. Your best option is to get a pro involved.

[2coolornot2cool]

Its also possible that the heatpump may be stuck in A/C and also running the strip heat. Had this problem last night. Customer called and said the system constantly running and not putting out very much heat. When I arrived I found the strip heat was running along with the condensor, which was stuck in cool mode. Found a failed reversing valve.

[Thebil Illpay]

not there, just a flying guess....sound like your secondary heat is not kicking in. Does the T-stat have a "emergency heat" switch?

You need to aether call the landlord if renting or call a reliable HVAC contractor to send out a tech.

A flying question for a flying guess, for the Op's sake in case he can turn on secondary or emergency heat:

Is the secondary or emergency heat less expensive to run than the heat pump?

[2coolornot2cool]

on average it costs 2 or 3 times more to run your secondary heat strips than your heat pump.

[REP]

It is quite clear that your heat pump is not working correctly.It could be any of the offered ideas or about 12 differant ones.You could have a plugged filter,a burned out heat coil,a blown fuse,a blower running backward,a bad thermostat,a bad outdoor stat,a bad defrost control,wrong blower speed Etc.etc.etc.
Tell your landlord that he/she needs to get a heatpump mechanic not just an ordinary heating tech.

[VTHokies11]

Thanks for all of the feedback; it's really helpful. I'm definitely going to talk to management tomorrow and hope something gets done.

It's about 20F outside and the unit has only clicked off maybe 4 times since noon today.

One other thing, the center of my downstairs is always the coldest part. I have 3 ceiling vents with air deflectors pointing to the center of the room; however, they're obviously not that great at heating up the center. Is there anything I could do for that to help air flow? This will be beneficial both before and after maintenance attends to my heat pump. I've attached a little image to describe it a little better.

[air2spare]

A flying question for a flying guess, for the Op's sake in case he can turn on secondary or emergency heat:

Is the secondary or emergency heat less expensive to run than the heat pump?

if the secondary heat was cheaper I think it would be called the primary heat instead

[kevinnn]

Mummy type sleeping bags work great when the heat is not up to par or someone wants to really set temp. down when asleep. A solution at least until someone takes a peek at the system to see if it is doing its job or there is trouble.

[REP]

Thanks for all of the feedback; it's really helpful. I'm definitely going to talk to management tomorrow and hope something gets done.

It's about 20F outside and the unit has only clicked off maybe 4 times since noon today.

One other thing, the center of my downstairs is always the coldest part. I have 3 ceiling vents with air deflectors pointing to the center of the room; however, they're obviously not that great at heating up the center. Is there anything I could do for that to help air flow? This will be beneficial both before and after maintenance attends to my heat pump. I've attached a little image to describe it a little better.

Ceiling supplies are great for cooling as cold air is heavery than hot air and it falls to the floor.Ceiling supplies in heating tend to spread the heated air along the ceiling and the as it accumulates it gets deaper until it gets down to thermostat level and then the heat shuts off.
I had this situation in a small cottage I owned and didn't notice it until the first Sunday I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and reading my newspaper.I noticed I was chilly and didn't warm up after the furnace came on.
I changed out the supplies that were there to H&C model A618 which threw the air to the floor.Huge difference in comfort after that.
If that doesn't work then a ceiling fan should help loads.Make sure you get an energy star fan.You have to look hard for them at Lowes and HD but they do have them.

[genduct]

It looks like dealing with this situation is going to be part of your "Educational Experience" as well as your major.
Report your concerns IN WRITING to the landlord. If there is no action/response you will then need to call the building inspector because having a system that conforms both the the IRC and the IECC is not optional. You may also want to find out if the local Electric Company has anyone you can speak with and finally you may, AFTER NOTIFYING YOUR LANDLORD IN WRITING that you will need to deduct the cost of HVAC contractors from your rent along with the difference between what the electric bill is vs what it should be.

Now I understand this is hardball. You'll want to be nice at first and then progressively turn up the heat (legal) because of the lack of heat (actual)

Good Luck and isn't this comprehensive education thing great?
Use my profile email lf you need to know more.

Mike