Help with heating

9 years ago

I apologize in advance as this is long to explain my dilemma!
I have a split system in a home built in 1991. Not sure how old the system in the attic is but the Weather King heat pump unit outside seems to be a 2006 model. I installed a new Honeywell thermostat 3 years ago (RTH7500 series). Recently my electric bill went up at least $75. I started noticing my heat was not turning off...just kept running and the auxiliary would turn on occasionally even though the temp was at the 68 degrees I set it at and the temp was only 55 degrees outside. The outside unit does not appear to be coming on at all. I'm a single woman strapped financially and am trying to exhaust all problems before calling someone as that will be $60 to $100 just for a service call. My first thought is replacing the thermostat on the wall and see if that is the problem. Any ideas? Or any more info needed?

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Comments (5)

kdc125
Original Author
9 years ago
Also, we've had a problem with someone "huffing" freon out of units in our neighborhood and people having to lock their units. Could this be the problem?
klem1
9 years ago
"Could this be the problem?"
Absence of freon will prevent most outdoor units coming on. Low on freon would either A. outdoor unit comes on a few seconds then gos off each time t-stat calls for heat. B. a rare few units have a low pressure reset switch on low side line inside the unit. Normally red or blue button.
First thing to look at is breakers for outdoor unit. It should be a pair of 20amp to 40amp breakers. There are ocasionally a secound pair of breakers on wall next to unit. If all is good there,do the following.
Set the t-stat to aux or emerg heat locking out the heat pump all day or overnight. Before setting t-stat back to H pump,have somone stand next to outdoor unit and observe for short on then off cycle or compressor comeing on but not fan or only a single CLICK when set to H pump. Post back with what was observed and we will go from there.
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tigerdunes
9 years ago
You need to have a service by an HVAC HP pro.

IMO
mike_home
9 years ago
"Recently my electric bill went up at least $75."

I realized you want to avoid a service call, but it sounds like your paying for a higher electric bill because the heat pump is not operating correctly. The 3 year old thermostat is most likely not the problem.

"Also, we've had a problem with someone "huffing" freon out of units in our neighborhood and people having to lock their units. Could this be the problem?"

If the heat pump has low or no refrigerant, then it cannot provide heat. You are most likely heating the house with the emergency electric heat strips. It costs about three times more to heat your house with electric heat strips compared with the heat pump.
kdc125
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you everyone! You all were right on target. I had a friend stop by that is a heating/ac guy. He found my breaker had tripped but because it had a leak and was completely out of freon. He will be coming back to find and weld the leak and refill it. I have no idea what kind of money I'm looking at but as he said the good thing is that it tripped the breaker rather than keep running until it burnt up the motor. Thanks again for all of your input! :)