Heat pumps and programmable thermostats have become popular these days as people try to find ways to reduce their energy consumption. Whether motived by decreasing their carbon footprint, lowering their energy bills, or both, heat pumps and programmable thermostats are excellent alternatives for lowering the amount of energy used to heat and cool homes.
However, if you are not careful when using a programmable thermostat with your new heat pump you may end up wasting energy by activating the auxiliary heat too often. A heat pump is an energy efficient way to heat a home because it moves heat rather than creates heat. As the name implies, a heat pump moves heat from outside the home to the inside to warm the home.
It is an efficient and economical system, but it is less effective at temperatures below freezing. To compensate for this, most heat pumps have auxiliary electric heating strips installed to supplement the heat when the heat pump can’t keep up with the demand for heat. Heat strips are an expensive way to heat, but if they are used sparingly a heat pump is still an efficient heating system.
The problem with programmable thermostats is that they are typically set to lower the temperature about 10 degrees at night and when the homeowner is away during the day. When the program switches back to the more comfortable higher temperature setting, the heat pump tries to reach that temperature quickly and the electric auxiliary strips are activated. Using the electric auxiliary heating strips to bring the temperature backup offsets the energy savings from lowering the temperature during the night and might even be counter productive.
If you use a programmable thermostat with a heat pump, program it so the temperature only drops two or three degrees at night to avoid activating the auxiliary heating strips.
