Let the heat pump run, until it reaches about -10 maybe -15F outside. This will help reduce your heating bill.

CPH is a digital method of heat anticipation. Set the heat pump and aux heat to 3. The higher the number, the more times it will cycle per hour. The lower the number, it will cycle less.

 

We don't lock out heat pumps around here. Our coldest temps are usually zero to -5 for about a week of nights in december, and 20's are very common in the winter. The heat pump cannot keep up at that point but it is still bringing some heat into the house and taking some of the load off of the 15 or 20,000 watt auxiliary heaters.

 

Who lived in the house before? an old couple? Many people fell that heat ump air is to cool once it gets so cold outside, especially the elderly or on poorly installed/ducted systems. So HVAC companies lock out the heat pump where the customer is comfortable.

I would have the setup changed to let the heat pump run and bring on the strip heat as needed to maintain temperature.

 

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Don't lock out the heat pump until -10 to -15 like been there said, if anything lock out the electric strips above 35*F (that may be what that setting you are fooling with does).

 

To answer kis-ccc's question, the previous owner was a couple in their 40s. The heat pump sits on the opposite side of th living room wall and it does get a bit louder as the temperature falls. (I had a local contractor check the system out and he said that it was in good condition and the louder operation at lower temperatures is fairly normal because the oil in the compressor starts to thicken up a bit.)

I changed the cycles per hour settings to 3 per beenthere's recommendation and when the compressor runs longer, it seems to quiet down a little bit.

Setting 0350 is described as the "Heat Pump Compressor Lockout (Balance point)." The available settings are no compressor lockout and 15-45 degrees F in 5 degree increments. I changed this to 15 degrees. I can change it to none but we do generally get a few nights a year below -10 and record lows are into the -20s. Typical overnight lows in January are in the 10-15 degree range.

Setting 0360 is described as "Heat Pump Auxiliary Heat Lockout." The available settings are none and 40 - 60 degrees F in 5 degree increments. I changed this from none to 45.

Would there be any advantage to one of the newer smart thermostats? My parents had a Nest and ended up switching back to their old thermostat. Maybe the Honeywell Prestige or Ecobee?

I appreciate the help.

 

Would there be any advantage to one of the newer smart thermostats? My parents had a Nest and ended up switching back to their old thermostat. Maybe the Honeywell Prestige or Ecobee?

I appreciate the help.

What thermostat is in there now, Lennox X4147? This looks like a Honeywell VisionPro 8000 digital touchscreen. It operates like one as well.

Definitely no NEST!!!!

Any change in thermostat would allow for additional controls, but of items you do not have.

In my opinion stick with what you have and you should be happy.

 

The stat you have is a good one, no sense in changing. I would change balance point to none and aux lockout to 40 if it were my house. There's no harm done by running the hp at -20 you just want get much heat out of it. There is available heat in the air down to absolute zero -459.67*F.

 

Only advantage of killing the pump in single digits is avoiding defrosts. Yes, the pump is efficient that cold but if you spend 5 to 10 minutes every 60 to 90 minutes in defrost blowing 36,000 BTUs of ice cold air in the house, that can easily eat up the savings of the heat pump. The timer on the pump will call for a defrost every time since the coil is cold. If there's any wind, it may take up to 10 minutes in defrost to get that big coil up to temp and end the defrost. That's a lot of cold air being put in the place.

 

We have the Lennox X4147 thermostat.

I suppose that if very cold temperatures are expected, I can manually switch to emergency heat. It doesn't happen that often.

We are seriously considering adding insulation. One of the advantages of the wifi thermostats is that we can monitor how frequently the heat pump and aux heat are running each day. The alternative is to read our meter at the same time each day and try to figure out how much went to heating and how much went to other things. Do any of you have any experience with the Ecobee's HomeIQ? Does the Honeywell app offer similar features?

 

Honeywell and Lennox make WiFi thermostats. My experience with Lennox WiFi stats is they are very glitchy, whereas no issues with Honeywell.

I have no personal experience with the Ecobee.

 

The Honeywell app tells nothing as to operation time. On the Prestige IAQ that info can be found on the wall unit. But Honeywell is greatly lacking in what it tells via WiFi. I've installed a couple Ecobees but that's been it, last one I got her online but didn't spend any time seeing what all it tells. Certainly lots more than Honeywell.

 

Ecobee is good

 

A couple of follow up questions, does anyone see any problems letting the heat pump and the 20kW aux heat run at the same time?

Does anyone know if the Lennox X4147 thermostat would run the aux heat and the heat pump at the same time if the heat pump was not supplying enough heat to heat the house? I normally leave the thermostat set at 66 and so far the heat pump has been able to keep up on its own but if I advance the thermostat even 1 degree, the thermostat shuts off the heat pump and runs the aux heat.

Thanks for the help.

 

Sounds like it has been set up to control a fossil fuel aux heat. In which case it will shut off the heat pump when ever it calls for aux heat. So since you have electric aux heat, its not set up right.

Do you have the install manual, if so, it tells you how to change the settings.

 

I checked the manual and the settings on the touchscreen:
Setting 0170: System Type - 7 - Two Heat/One Cool Heat Pump -- Heat pump with auxiliary or back-up heat

Setting 0200: Auxiliary Heat Source - 0 - Electric heat is used as auxiliary heat source in heat pump application

I'm inclined to just let the thermostat do it's thing. Given that the auxiliary heat is the rough equivalent of a 70,000 BTU furnace, is there any harm in letting both the heat pump and auxiliary heat run at the same time?

Thanks for the help.

 

No harm, and it saves you money too.