Emergency heat is kind of like those hefty overdraft fees from the bank: They may get you out of a jam, but they’ll cost a lot to do so. One homeowner in Ocean City experienced this when the old heat pump in his duplex failed and switched over to emergency heat. It got the job done, but was costing him a bundle, and he wasn’t even aware of the problem right away!

Our homeowner got a huge shock when he saw his energy bills, and knew something was wrong, so he called the experts here at Comfort Now by Bob McAllister to find out what could be wrong. It wasn’t any colder than usual, and the heat seemed to be working just fine. Luckily, we knew right where to look once we heard what was going on. And, it wasn’t long before our customer had a new heating system and back-to-normal utility bills.

Problem: The 20-year-old 3-Phase York 8-SEER heat pump had failed in an Ocean City duplex. As a result, the system switched to emergency heat, drastically increasing utility bills.

Solution: Replace the old heat pump with a new Carrier Infinity Series 16-SEER Coastal Heat Pump system with increased efficiency and additional protections from corrosion, important to extend the life of systems in coastal communities.

Heat pump systems are an energy-efficient alternative to furnaces or air conditioners. They have a reputation for working well in mild climates by pulling in air from the outside and either warming or cooling it to reach the temperature you want inside the house. When it’s just way too cold for the air to warm, or something’s gone wrong, the emergency heat kicks on. Newer systems also have improved ”inverter” technology which enables them to work just as well in even colder weather, down to 17F degrees or below, before relying on any backup emergency heating, making them a great solution for places like our New Jersey shore communities.

As the name implies, emergency heat should only be used when something’s gone really, really wrong. It’s usually labeled like that on on the pump itself. Sometimes it goes under the less severe-sounding “Auxiliary heat” or “Aux heat.”  But they all mean the same thing. If the heat pump — the part of the system that actually pumps hot or cool air through the house — breaks down, or can’t work hard enough to maintain the temperature you want, the emergency source kicks in. This is sometimes called “Second stage heat.”

Most of the time, that secondary source is electric heat. It’s located in a unit inside the home, as opposed to pulling in air from the outside like the main system does. A lot of times, they actually look like toaster coils heating up, and that hot air gets pushed through the house.

It works, but it’s costly. You should only turn it on when there’s an emergency, like something breaking down in severe cold while also calling an HVAC expert right away. You want the problem fixed before you pay way too much for your heat.

That was the situation we found in this Ocean City duplex. The old heat pump had failed and the unit was running on emergency heat for a while. True to form, you couldn’t tell the difference in the house: The temperature was just right, even in the chilly weather. The only clue for the homeowner were the giant bills.

Once we figured this out, we quickly got to work. At this point, the owner had to decide between having no heat or paying through the nose until a new system was installed. Our homeowner discussed the various options available with the experts here at Comfort Now, and decided it was time to replace the 20 year old York system for something that would deliver additional efficiency along with smaller energy bills year-round.

We recommended a heat pump from the new Carrier Comfort Coastal Series. The Coastal series is a line of products made specifically for homes close to large bodies of salt water. Each unit has special coatings and platings that reduce the risk of corrosion, a big problem when you’re as close to ocean as Ocean City.

The new Coastal series heat pump system also helps get those utility bills down below where they were, even when the old heat pump was working properly. It has a two-stage blower fan, as opposed to the one-stage fan we replaced. With a dual-stage system, the pump can either work at full blast or use less energy when the weather is cooler and the air doesn’t require as much treatment. Additionally, by using inverter technology, the heat pump will work well even at temperatures well below freezing, meaning less, if any, use of emergency heat. With improved overall heating and cooling ability and improved efficiency, our owner of this great coastal duplex will have comfort no matter what the season, and the unit will have a longer lifespan due to its additional corrosion protections, which is critical at the Shore.

Sure, nothing can get back the extra money our ocean City duplex owner shelled out while his heat pump was busted. But Comfort Now was able to provide a solution that would not only get bills down below normal, by installing a more efficient system with an extended lifespan, saving our homeowner money each and every month starting immediately.

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