Auxilary heat

[dddjr67]

I have a heat pump with auxiliary heat strips. I have heat balance turned off on my thermostat but have the auxiliary heat lock out set to 34 degrees. When the outside temp drops below this point, the auxiliary heat will not automatically come on. If I bump it up 3 to 4 degrees, it will come on. Auxiliary heat works, it's just the thermostat will not turn it on and the auxiliary heat lockout temp. Is the thermostat supposed to display aux heat the entire time the aux heat is on?

[Markjosephp]

Hello dddjr67,

Thank you for taking the time to let us know about your inquiry. I'd be happy to shed some light on the situation here!

It sounds like you've got a specific issue with your Nest Thermostat and the auxiliary heat lockout temperature. In normal circumstances, when the outside temperature drops below the set lockout temperature, the thermostat should allow the auxiliary heat to come on. However, it seems like there might be a misconfiguration.

Firstly, regarding the display, the thermostat typically shows "Aux Heat" when the auxiliary heat is actively running. If it's not displaying this when the auxiliary heat is on, it could indicate a problem. Please check out the Heat Pump Balance article for some settings you might need to adjust.

Let us know if that helps.

Regards,
Mark

[dddjr67]

Mark, this is what I have found. With a heat pump, when you set up single fuel, the Aux heat will rarely come on. Basically it only comes on when you raise the temp 3+ degrees at once. The wording of the aux heat lock out temp is somewhat misleading. I found an article online that explained this. The aux heat does not necessarily come on per that set temp. The thermostat will determine that. Also, the thermostat did not lock out the compressor per the set temp.

Sooo, I reconfigured my system as dual fuel even though Google says to use single fuel for my set up. It works perfectly now using dual fuel. 

Thanks for your reply