The recovery mode on your thermostat should be keeping it from using the resistive heat when it brings the temp backup. There might be some programmable parameters on it you need to change so it knows how long to try before it lets the aux heat kick in. You could also start the ramp up "manually" with several small programmed increases during the early morning. You might have to start pretty far in advance.
Also thermostats differ in how programmable and flexible they are. Take a look at a Honeywell VisonPro TH8320 installation manual as an example.
While I agree with you in theory but at 25 deg F, not in practice.
In theory, the heat pump will cost less to operate, but in practice at
25 F the heat pump cannot keep the house warm and it runs full time. So you have to take the wear and tear cost into account. How much does it cost to replace a compressor? Also if it is icing up and the defrost cycle has to run every 1/2 hour, it just doesn't make sense to run the machine any longer.Mark
I guess when it gets cold here and the furnace is running most of the time, I should shut it off because I'll wear it out. If you amortize the heat pump cost over it's entire life and factor that in to the cost of operating it, I'm sure you'll come out ahead compared to using electric resistance heat, even when it's 25F. At that temp, you're still getting 2X the heat for every $1 of electricity. How many hours of that do you think it takes before you've paid for the heat pump?
If it's in an environment where it's defrosting that frequently, then yes, I agree that's an issue.
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