No HEAT Call in a Tennessee Blizzard!! HVAC Repairs 

Whoever replaced tstat removed the white wire so they could come back on a winter service call. Happens a lot.

Kudos for looking out for the elderly.

We got 2' of snow over the weekend in Northern Michigan. Had to park my van by the customers barn and use a sled to get my tools down to the house.

I’m in Ontario and we just started installing Bosch heat pump dual fuel with back up gas heat and we are setting for the heat pump to switch over (balence point) to -10 celcius

Im in south Alabama and no matter how cold it gets here I let the heat pump run. Only if the unit stops producing heat will I switch to auxiliary heat because those heat strips use a ton of electricity and runs up a bill.

There are heat pumps here in NH but I don't trust them to work when it's -20 F. I've heard that they're a lot better lately, but time will tell. Because I'm on a mountain and lose power several times a year, I have multiple heat source options. When the propane & oil trucks can't get up the mountain, I can still use wood and pellets. I am considering getting some of these for AC and having a spring/fall light duty heating system is a good option. Having redundant systems is a fact of life while living on a mountain.

Here in AZ we were fortunate enough to be running around town blasting the AC…. 75 degreees today !!! Unbelievable

I was literally in oak ridge Tennessee left right on time before the snow storm

Good find and good job brother. Here in Tennessee we take care of our people. 👍👍

I'm in Central Florida, and heat pumps are the norm here. I do have a two stage dual compressor Trane XL1800 5 Ton Heat Pump, and it was born in 1999. Needless to say it runs a lot down here, and it does a great job pulling out the humidity, keeping our home around 40-44% RH most of the year. Sometimes dryer in the winter. As I'm sure you are aware, most heat pumps are good and capable of generating some heat down to a specific outdoor temperature and as such will automatically turn off below a specific outdoor temp. I believe on most thermostats, you can also configure them to disable the heat pump so it won't come on when the outdoor temp drops below a specific temperature. Ideally, the thermostat is set to match the Heat Pump manufacturers recommended temperature. This way, customers don't have to manually switch to EM Heat below a certain outdoor temp. Also, even though the heat pump may not put out full heat at lower temps, the fact that the indoor fan is circulating the air pretty much non stop will help to insure more even air temps in the home and eliminate hot spots or cool spots making the rooms more temperature consistent and comfortable. I usually just set it and forget it and let the intelligence built into the unit do its thing, and it works pretty well adding heat strips when needed to raise the temp a degree or two occasionally during our coldest nights. Thanks for sharing this video. It's still a mystery why those wires were not connected in the air handler unit correctly... Great Job!

Your setup is impressive clean and looking good all around nice work.

I'm here only nice to see you 😊 we have 2 and a half feet here in Quebec Canada

In Canada, we often set our heat pumps to cut out around -10 C (14F) because past that the OD coil can only grab so much heat to be comfortable for the supply air. I have an issue with vertical discharge outdoor units in the snow, because if ice gets on the fan blades that can mess your day up.

I have had my curiosity peaked during this winter. I have a thirteen-year-old heat pump with strips. The issue with putting it on Emergency heat only is that the strips will not heat as well as letting the system run on its own. Still doing research on the subject. I used to work on mobile homes in the 70's but had mostly Gas, Oil or all electric. On the all-electric we had far more heat strips than on a heat pump back up strips. I did quit servicing mobile homes and decided to stay with RV's which was my main line of work. I am 76 now and retired with a couple of rental houses so like to keep my hand in the knowledge of the units. Thanks for the video from a Nashville TN 😎

That southern hospitality!!! I miss it

Great job guy! I'll bet, from now on, they'll look upon you as an adopted son. Brings back memories for me, going out in an Iowa blizzard, which is a bit different than a Tennessee blizzard. You're talking 60+mph winds and at a lot of blowing snow and white-outs. Thanks for the video. You're one of the good ones.

Now that right there is my absolute favorite find when it happens. This past summer had very similar call on a weekend. Customer had painters working outside the house and I believe they accidently snagged the tstat wire perfectly to separate Y to C. Love easy fixes!

I used to teach the same thing. Burn the strips below freezing but honestly if your tstat drops below setpoint by two degrees the strips will come on to boost heat. Im in Bama so I agree when its freezing and snow/ice to cut the unit off and turn on emergency heat.

You're a good guy for going out in that nasty weather. Glad it was an easy fix.

I love your content. I start an HVAC/R program next month but in the past have had tech experience. I love it and can't wait to start my career. People like you make learning 10x easier. I love the way you explain, I love being able to tag along with you on service calls. I thank God for blessing the world with you. Thanks a million Brother! I'll see you around. :)

Love the easy ones. Up here in NJ most of the heat pumps we install if the indoor temperature drops 2-3 below room temperature the electric/ backup heat kicks in

Im also in TN. On more modern heat pumps they are typically designed to be more efficient than electric heat down to 0 degrees so i dont see an issue just letting them run and the unit bring on auxiliary heat as needed if it falls below the balance point. There are some circumstances where i would switch to emergency heat like if large ice cicles could fall into the unit from the edge of the roof or there is freezing rain that could cover the unit in ice or snow drifts that could cover the unit. If it's just cold though i dont see an issue in letting it run.

I have an inverter system heat pump and live in North Texas but I keep it in normal mode because it is good down to -2 degrees. I tell my customers with the standard heat pump to the same as you do, use EH until temp is above freezing a few degrees

I just learned in this latest storm that if you do turn off the heat pump, either wait until it is above freezing of check the fan on the condenser. Turned mine on when it got relatively warm and the condenser about shook hard. Fortunately, I noticed it within a minute or two. Had ice on the fan blades. Secured it then a couple days later went out with a heat gun to clear off the ice. Felt much better after it went through a defrost cycle when I did turn it on.

I live near Lexington Ky. We had our heat pump replaced last summer. We've had temps recently in the single digits and have not used emergency heat. It's a 14 seer Rheem unit and when I turn the temp up in the AM from 66 to 69 the Aux heat will kick on and helps the house heat faster. That's the only time Aux kicks in and the heat pump has no trouble maintaining 69 and still cycles on and off. The installer, a reputable company told us to not use Emergency heat.

in my area we have outdoor thermostats on about fifty percent of the units.... but yes... when there is a cold front that comes through where Temp is expected to be near zero for a few days, I tell my customers to put the unit into EMH until normal temps return.... just keep in mind that some outdoor units may need to be cleaned of snow from condenser before starting

Just went through my second cold snap here in Texas. I suspended my tstat schedule & let heat pump do it's thing. It handled heating with minimal heat strip usage. Bryant 2- ton with 10kw stripes. Average daily use 40kwh almost no - stop running.

I was installing a bunch of Bosch 18 seer HP. A vision Pro and outdoor air sensor with every one. Emergency heat lockout above 25°. Every customer I've spoken to since gas been very happy.

Thank u so much bro im in hvac school now ..love your videos😊

I'm in north Texas. I tell my customers to switch to emergency heat at 20 degrees. We had some really cold weather here this week. I turned my heat pump back on at 12F just to see what it would do. I was only getting about a 4-5 TD, so I switched back to EH. Mines a 2017, 15 SEER RUUD system.

Here in Florida when gets below freezing same thing emergency heat solenoid will sometimes fail even though doesn’t get that cold very often maybe couple homes a year I see with that issue. In Commercial/industrial now so little different.

Hey! Hang in there dude! I’m from up north dealing with -25 all week! Keep the videos coming!

Thank You Zac, i enjoyed your video, i'm Pleased it was a easy job for you during this snowing and cold day.. It's now 26c (79F) where i live 100km south of Sydney, so Keep warm. BTW we also have many drivers here that Don't know how to drive safely. 😨 👍 Au

Keep up the good work. I see you around town alot maybe one day I'll get to meet you.

I got snowed in here where I live between Chattanooga and Knoxville. Couldn’t get my service van out of my driveway for almost 2 weeks. After the snow, my almost 900’ driveway turned to ice 😬 my pond had 3 inches of ice

I came across 3 of these same issus today in the field🤣 shout out from Texas. Same on the emergency tip

I think you are correct I do the same with my customers great Job buddy

Hey brother! From Maryland. I’ve always told the customers to keep the system in normal heat mode unless the outdoor unit stops operating, then use emergency heat mode. I feel that it really depends on the actual equipment. Some equipment is more efficient than other.

Northwest Arkansas here. Glad that one was an easy fix!

Glad you got taken care of for them 😊

Absolutely thumbs UP! I am sure that couple was super appreciative that you got their heat working! SO because of the wires being off the system would not switch over to emergency heat mode?

Here in nc you have to install a Cut off sensor to turn the Odu compressor off and run the EH when temps falls to a certain degree on new installs.Most of the times the cut off is 35-30

Getting to be like Chicago there My sister and most of my family has lived in TN Enjoy it

I tell my customers same thing!Great job!!

Rodney, Tulsa Oklahoma, I’m with you, below freezing use EM heat, I know the heat pump can add some additional heat but heat strips should be sized to run solely on there own, I have also ran calls where the heat pump was running with the heat strips and cooling down the air temp a little, I am guessing the heat may be low on charge did not check it since it was single digits out side, I know newer units are more efficient, so I would say the units age factors in, thanks for the video

I used to think it was better to lock out the heatpump below 15 degrees, but have since tested my own heatpump. I checked it this weekend when the temp was 7 degrees outside. The hot gas line going to the inside coil was 160 degrees F. That's pretty good heat production at that ambient temp. The aux strips alone could not maintain the 68 degree set temp on the thermostat, but it did with the heatpump on. So I say leave the heatpump running unless there is danger of the outdoor fan becoming locked or the coils becoming clogged by ice. Heatpumps can produce heat at temps well below 0. My unit is a 14 year old Goodman 14 seer that I upgraded with a Emerson on demand defrost board.

I live in NH and just installed a Mitsu Hyper Heat system on my house to become my new primary heat source, and keeping my gas fired old steam boiler as the backup heat. Sure the Hyper Heats can heat as low as 17 below zero outside, but the cost to do so outweighs the cost of using gas. So when it drops below 15 degrees, I turn on the boiler.

I'm in E TN, My heat pump is around 6 years old. Heat failed around 15 deg. Switched to EM heat and nothing. Thank god I have a woodstove for backup.

My Bosch heat pump is cold weather rated, and I have it automatically switch over to auxiliary heat at 0 degrees F. I have a plenum heater for backup as well as a Bosch propane furnace. Everything functions flawlessly in the cold Minnesota weather.

We had 8 degree temps 2 weeks ago and I used emergency heat for about 2 hours one morning. My 5 ton, 2017 Trane XR heat pump did a pretty good job of keeping our house (2260 sq ft) 69 degrees during the day when it got up to 17-18 degrees. It runs quite a bit but does cycle on and off. 14 ft. ceilings make it harder to heat in the living room, kitchen, dining room area but that's just part of having high ceilings I guess.

Run it! If they didn’t want then to run at that low if a temp they’d put in a outdoor ambient cut off like Mitsubishi does. I believe some of the new tranes have one as well

From Washington state. We use to do heat pump commissioning sheets for the state. They wanted the cutout for the outdoor at 5°F. At that temperature, the hp will run constantly and MAYBE maintain your setpoint, but most customers aren't comfortable with the supply temp at that outdoor temperature. Especially the older generation, I've found. 25°F is where I like to set them, depending on the equipment and customer.

I went on a similar call once but come to find out another company disconnected that W wire during the summer because they couldn’t figure out why it had 24V. Found that a mouse chewed through the wires and G and W were touching.

Great 👍 job easy fix and easy on the customer’s pockets.

The video threw me off when it's the middle of winter and you're grabbing a contactor! I'm typically grabbing control boards and igniters haha heat pumps aren't super common unless you have a cottage or a boiler system around my parts. Also, if you only get an inch of snow, we typically stay in until the rest of the snowstorm hits until we break out the sleds.... and our sleds have motors haha

Lennox ML14XP central HP here. I run that hard in winter in PA. It’s backed up by oil instead of strips so I do have the stat lock out the HP at 15 F, just for my own comfort with all the defrost cycles it’d do.

I tell all my client to keep the heat pump in normal operations unless the heat pump quits working for 2 reasons. 1) the house will heat better with the heat pump and aux heat vs. just the emergency heat 2) a lot of times the heat kits in peoples houses are undersized for the home and running it in just emergency heat will be worse off temp wise than just running normally.

I live in TN as well, for me having a heat pump system that’s 6yrs old. I turn the temp down and it seems to work out ok.

In Ukraine we used cooper hunter ac split systems to heat our house in-25c. It works, lots of ice around it though

Here in southern Manitoba, I have a Goodman single stage heat pump with Daikin smart stat. The installer didn’t install an ODT didn’t even know what it was. The Daikin stat requires a 10 Kohm RTC ODT. I work with enough electronics that it was simple for me to get a 10 Kohm RTC thermistor. Wired it to the ODT terminals on the Daikin stat. I could then program the heat pump lockout for +20 F. No issues so far

Up here in Pennsylvania, It's natural gas furnaces and boilers, no heat pumps in most of the area, not reliable enough, even heat strips aren't able to keep up, and not a lot of straight air conditioning in the summer, unless it's a newer building, a lot of window units and split units.

Minnesota here, my parents Trane XL14i, HP and XV90 LP gas furance, they are set to AUTO swtich over to gas below 20˚. Then back to HP above 20˚

I’m in Middle TN also. I’ve been telling people the exact same thing as far as heat pumps. My thought process is same as yours, I don’t like a condenser running it 0 degree weather. Also, you wouldn’t believe the amount of calls I’ve had the last three days that have been simple/dumb stuff. Very few have been true service calls. Also, it’s not the Tennesseans that can’t drive, it’s all these transplants.

Great Video. Thank you for sharing

In Virginia where the temps don't get to single digits. Unless there's an issue with the heat pump like on low charge, I say keep it on the normal setting. Even at 17F, the heat pump oughta have a COP great than 2. It may run awhile, but still cheaper than the heat strips. The thermostat may occasionally call for it if needed. I run a 16 year old single stage heat pump and have locked out the heat strips. No issues with it maintaining 68 on a 100 year old house with modern windows, good attic insulation, and air sealing.

Here in Chicago with the last few negative temperature days, Got a lot of no heats for mini splits. All I could do is explain that unit is constantly fighting defrost cycle due to extreme conditions.

I graduated the hvac 2 year course but I only fix my own stuff and sometimes a few in the neighborhood but I still like watching repair videos. I live in Texas at the temps last week hit 19 degrees but I don’t use emer heat since my heat pump does aux it on its own but when it’s 19 out should we force the unit to stay on emer heat or let the unit it do its own thing? I do my monthly maintenance and keep my coils clean and all that so my heat pump was keeping the heat fine that I set it to but for those that don’t clean their coils and stuff that why I ask if they should use it if the house is getting a few degrees colder than the set temp in the T stat.

In Canada we had a bad storm just last Friday and it was a complete whiteout. Good video. And yes we do have heat pumps here, customers complain why is it taking so long for house to heat up lol.

Hey! Bundle up!

Here in PA we just let heat pump systems set to normal heat. Also depending on the type of heat pump, we rarely see strip heat other then defrost.

It was 11 here last night. I just let my 3 ton hp run normally. It ran all night but maintained 68 using aux heat as needed

I set my thermostat to lock out the compressor at 10 degree ,this morning it was 5 degrees out when I got up this morning and it was 64 degrees in the house .I thought something was bad wrong. Duke energy had control of the t stat for a while. Eco -64 was showing on the thermostat. While the call for heat was on ,the heat strips put out 100 degree air ,a while later the temp rose above 10 degrees so the outside unit was operating and the supply air was 120 degrees. At 9 am duke set the thermostat back to my setting back to 68. System normal.

WORST time to get a no heat call… I had the same thing with one of my family members. Luckily I was able to grab an ignition board to get them back up and running the next day.

We just finished with -30 below wind chills. Today feels a lot better 7 degrees.

I used to tell them the same thing but I’ve found that these newer heat pumps can keep a house warmer than the heat strips alone.

We're up north by Canada, heat pumps don't work out here, everything is forced air, natural gas or propane, that soft Tennessee winter ain't nothin!

I agree with you on the heat pumps.

Gotta like the easy ones! Sucks when it’s the worst day of the year though. During winter, It usually averages 30-40 degrees in my area, so I won’t set a HP lockout and let the customers run it, but set a 30 or 60 minute defrost interval, depending on how humid the area is. Usually every HP we put in has an accumulator too, so that will help any liquid coming back if it frosts heavy. However, I have family where the winter can be single or low 20s for 2 months straight, and below 0 cold snaps, so I had them run only the strip heat during the harsh part of winter. Their summers are hot so it’ll save the life for the cooling season 😊 kinda also depends if you have a single stage or inverter HP. I’ve seen some HP systems without accumulators, and I question that, and would say no to under 35, maybe even 40 lol. Must be a cheap thing

TN aswell currently no heat on electrical furnace just blows like warm did it all troubleshooting can’t find issue I have a contractor instead sequencer not heat pump 😐

I'm in Long Island, NY. I needed to get my central air conditioner replaced last spring. I decided to go with a Trane XR15 Heap Pump without emergency heat strips. I only use it in heat mode when the outside temps are 40 degrees or above and only during the day. Otherwise I use my oil fired boiler with baseboards. I figured I would try to cut out some oil consumption since the price of oil is ridiculous. What I have learned so far is that the hot water baseboard heat is by far the most comfortable heat in my opinion. The heat pump heat is not as comfortable. It tends to bring in unwanted humidity and since my vents are on the ceilings, can be blowing right on us depending of where we are in the house. In the fall when I first put it in heat mode and the coil was still wet from being in cool mode, it fogged up all of the windows and mirrors in the house and the extra humidity was not good at all. Since I did not get heat strips with mine, if it does go into defrost mode, it is blowing cool air for a few minutes but does not seem to be that big of a deal. I just figured since I was replacing the AC anyway, why not spend a couple extra bucks and have another option for heating. Electricity is not too bad here. I think 22 cents per kilowatt hour. Will see if it was worth it in the long run. Too soon to tell.

On a gas house, yes turn off heat pump when under 25 degrees. All electric home and newer pump, run that pump all the time, down to 5 degrees or so.

Indiana here, I subscribe to leaving the heat pump run all the way down to 0, especially inverters. Let the thermostat control bringing on auxiliary heat when needed.

Nice job honest person

We went to Trane heat pump, electric heater setup in 2022. We have been VERY pleased with it. Our HVAC tech told us to swap to EM Heat when it's below 30 outside. We just have the lowest trane heat pump unit. I wanted one with an inverter compressor and higher SEER rating but my God it was gonna be almost $18-20k! Ridiculous. Lol. Awesome videos man! Love your channel!

Modern heat pumps work to -35 Celsius. Switching to emergency heating is expensive.

Yeah, run that in emergency heat mode pulling 40 some amps and watch that meter spin. LOL.

I Guess, they installed new thermostat, but it was not set to heat pump or they did not find option for O or B, then when they were calling cooling, Condenser was running on heat, so they disconnect one of the wire to make it works. In the summer probably you need to come back,.. may be I am wrong.

Getting out in a BLIZZARD! What a boss!!😊

Here is kansas city, we have mostly gas furnaces, I tell customers with duel fuel heat pumps to run emergency heat only, we have no need to run heat pumps here unless they are all electric in the house.

Don't see a lot of h pumps here in Canada. Even in Toronto, the banana belt of the North.

Here in Central Texas I set my Ecobee thermostat to run the compressors with regular heat pump heat down to 15 degrees Farenheit. So far it is working well enough to get my rooms up to 68 with a 19 degree outside temperature but no snow.

I’m keeping my natural gas furnace.

Whoa. I can’t imagine leaving mine on emergency heat all the time below freezing. Mine’s 15,000 watts worth of heat strips. Our Trane XL16C heats just fine down to about 20°, then occasionally uses aux heat to supplement when it can’t keep up. But even then, it’s wayyyy more efficient to let the heat pump do most of the work rather than firing up 15,000 watts worth of heat strips. Below 20°, it utilizes aux heat 4-5 times an hour, but only supplemental. When it hits zero outside, the heat pump shuts off automatically, so Emergency heat must be used at that point. But that’s rare in Middle TN.

Run it always unless refrigerant side needs repair or defrost can’t keep up during heavy snow/ice conditions. The unit is designed to run, it’s a machine built for cold and hot weather.

I live in Michigan and run my Armstrong 20 seer inverter down to 0 because that’s the lowest the thermostat lets me set it 😂 it has ran for 7 years now 24/7 and other than general service I haven’t touched it .

I have a Mr cool universal low temp inverter system I run it to -15cl works great there systems are made by gree.

I’m in Southern California and we don’t even have heat strips in our heat pumps 😂. Today was a frosty 56 🥶.

My 25 yr old HP definitely works harder in heat mode, compressor pulls 500 more watts and defrost cycles 90 min cumulative run plus reversing valve cycling. In Florida it's a rare event though.

Sometimes companies only install 1 strip.Its designed for 2 stages of heat not 1

Didn’t know you were in TN. Too!