I have recently had a heat pump (American standard, heritage 14, 3 ton) installed with my existing bryant oil furnace as air handler. The furnace uses a becket afg oil burner. The new thermostat is a Honeywell TH8320U with an external temerature sensor. The thermostat controls the extermal fossil fuel function and is set for a crossover temperature of 35 degrees. This setup works fine. My problem is that the emergency heat function of the thermostat does not turn on the oil furnace, which is controlled as the auxilliary heat source. I have asked the installing contractor about this and am told it is not possible to have the oil furnace controlled as both auxilliary and emergency heat and that the emergency heat function is unnecessary.
I do not agree with this and feel that not having emergency heat is like driving a car without a spare tire. You may never need it, but if you do it sure is nice to have it available.
Does anybody know if it is possible to have this thermostat control the oil furnace as emergency heat and still have it available as the auxilliary?