Now let’s say it cools to 26 degrees outside. The cheap builders at my new home, put a gas furnace in for the first floor (zone 1) , and a heat pump for the second in third floor (zone 2). just to hold 68*. Running this form of AUX heat for too long can get pricy, so many Minnesota homeowners opt for the second form of AUX heating: a gas furnace. Auxiliary Heat running too much I have an Amana heat pump and air handler with a Honeywell Prestige thermostat which was all newly installed this past July. It popped up on my ecobee3 Lite. We have a heat pump and there's no gas heat or anything like that. You shouldn’t ever use EM heat unless there’s truly an emergency—like your heat pump isn’t working— because backup … If the units wired correctly emergency/auxillary heat will come on when the heat pump goes into defrost… it will send a signal to the white wire back to the air handler to energize the relay for the electric heater. Difference Between Auxiliary Heat and Emergency Heat. Your auxiliary heat, as just described, supplements your heat pump’s heat when it needs it. coil every 5-10 min. Like just stated, when your auxiliary heat function is running, it’s going to use up much more energy than your heat pump. Contact a Minnesota tech when AUX heat malfunctions. hooked up, my inside temp dropped 5* in an hour with the pump running constantly. Auxiliary heat can handle more extreme temperatures since it uses electric heat strips. Here are some tips to helping prevent the use of the auxiliary heat … Let’s say it is 28 degrees outside, the heat pump is running 100% as designed, the home is maintaining 72 degrees and all the heat made so far is cheap heat. What this means, unfortunately, is that it’s more expensive than the conventional heat provided by a heat pump. Letting the heat strips run all winter might keep you cozy, but it definitely has the potential to put a chill on your finances. Aux heat running too long? The house temp is set at 68 and the outdoor temp has been in mid forty to mid 50 range. Without the aux. The auxiliary heat (electric resistance heat, or back-up heat) is minimized since it is more expensive. No aux heat. If I had known, I would have asked for gas on the second and third floor for sure!! Question. EM heat is NOT the same thing as AUX heat: AUX heat signifies that your heat pump has automatically switched over to backup heating because temperatures are too low. Although having the auxiliary heat function is useful, you’re going to prevent the use of it as much as possible. Emergency Heat, also known as “auxiliary heat”, is the second stage of heat that your thermostat runs on when the temperature is too cold for your heat pump to extract heat from the outside. Knowing the difference between your heat pump’s auxiliary heat and emergency heat will help address the question from above. EM heat is an option on your thermostat that you can manually turn on to activate backup heating. Emergency Heat is typically triggered when it is 35°F and below outside. Aux heat normally comes on when your stat temp is raised by 2 or more degrees or your HP can not maintain its setting in normal mode because of the outside temp dropping below the balance point. Auxiliary Heat. Note: A heat pump combined with a gas furnace is also called a “duel fuel” or “hybrid heat” system. We're right back at my heat pump running constantly, and using the aux. I got a notice that my axillary heat has been running for over a hundred and 80 minutes in the last 24 hours and at that was too long. Here’s how it works. Which is 1.5 to 2 degrees lower than thermostat set point - the electric heat or auxiliary heat would then come on to make up the temperature difference. 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