I have a dual fuel heat pump propane back up I want to run the propane emergency heat with a generator. Can I just wire the 120 line that goes to the indoor unit to my generator transfer switch and set my thermostat on emergency heat ?
I have a dual fuel heat pump with Nat Gas. My furnace has a 110 plug. I just unplug it from the outlet and plug it into an extension cord hooked to the generator and set the thermostat to emergency heat. It works just fine.
I just noticed that you have a transfer switch. You can put your furnace on the transfer switch and it should work just fine.
On my York system, I'm almost positive the thermostat didn't "power up" until we turned on the HP breaker. But, I may be wrong. I'll have to check into that. It's a good question, as I have a HP with NG backup.
Can I ask the group what brand dual fuel heat pump you have, and if your happy with the performance. Mine is a Lennox dual fuel, porpane. The system (and house) is two years old. I've had several problems; the compressor was replaced last January when it locked up for no apparent reason! The replacement was installed with some kind of electric booster so it wouldn't stall (???). Recently, I've noticed, several times, that the house fan and condensor fan will run without the compressor running. The back up heat does not come on. I've had to turn the fan off manually to get the system to cycle. Then, it seems to run ok for awhile. My last house and system (Carrier) was also dual fuel but with electric back up and I never had a problem in the twelve years that I owned it. Are heat pump systems with gas back up working well? Are some Brands better than others when it comes to gas back up? Comments please! TomC Steve Barker wrote in article ...
I also have a lennox. It is almost 11 years old and the only problem that I have had was a bad reversing valve when it was about 8 years old.
I have a 2 year old Amana no problems My gas comes on about 28 degrees outside temp
I have mine set to switch to gas when it is about 33 outside.
It depends, some heat pumps have a thermometer built in. Mine had that, but I had to change the thermostat and it had the function built into it. It did take two more wires and was a bit of a pain to install. It allowed the outside thermometer to be placed where I wanted it.
My unit works regardless of outside temperature. It just switches to gas when indoor temp can't be satisfied. My current concern was that on several recent occassions I noticed an abnormal amount of cold air from the heat ducts. Upon checking the heat pump, I discovered that the fan on the unit was still running yet the compressor was not and the system seemed to be stuck in a loop wherein the gas furnace didn't kick in and the fans (furnace and condensor) wouldn't shut off unless I did it manually. Then, after a brief compressor lock out period, the system seemed to recycle OK . The heat pump/furnace is controlled by a computer unit (FM21 Controll) and sometimes I think it has a glitch in it. Computers are controlling everything and driving me nuts trying to figure out where the problems are :-( TomC
That is what my unit was doing when the reversing valve got stuck. It started out just doing it some of the time, then it failed completely. I had to run it on emergency heat until a new one could be ordered and installed.
I was suspicious of the reversing valve when the first compressor locked up. It would make an awfull noise when it tried to defrost. It took 10 days to get a replacement compressor. Fortunately, the weather cooperated. Had a warm spell so it wasn't too bad using the back up heat. I'm hoping I don't go through another compressor. :-). Thanks for the info. TomC
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