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Heat Pump Installation, Repair, and Maintenance
Heat Pumps: Smart Heating and Cooling - When Installed Right
Heat pumps have become one of the most popular choices for home comfort in recent years, and for good reason - they offer efficient heating and cooling in a single system. But as we’ve seen time and again in homes across the Zanesville area, the difference between a heat pump that performs flawlessly and one that leaves you shivering comes down to proper installation, especially proper wiring and programming.
Unfortunately, one common issues we encounter is a heat pump that loses comfort during its defrost cycle. In heating mode, heat pumps periodically reverse operation to defrost the outdoor coil - a normal and necessary process. The problem occurs when the system isn’t wired correctly to activate the auxiliary or emergency heat strips during that cycle. When that happens, your home doesn’t just pause its heating - it can actually blow cool air through your vents for several minutes at a time. Multiply that across a winter and you have a system that frustrates homeowners into thinking the heat pump itself is defective, when the real culprit is an electrical oversight that takes a trained technician minutes to correct.
This matters even more during extreme cold. Zanesville and the surrounding region have experienced some punishing cold weather events in recent seasons — temperatures that pushed well below what many heat pumps are rated to handle efficiently on their own. During those stretches, the relationship between the heat pump and its backup heat source becomes critical. A correctly wired and configured system hands off seamlessly to auxiliary heat when outdoor temperatures drop too low, maintaining your comfort without missing a beat. A poorly configured one leaves you calling for service at the worst possible time. If you’re considering a heat pump or recently had one installed, it’s worth having a qualified technician verify the wiring, thermostat configuration, and defrost controls before the next cold snap arrives.
Can I have a heat pump installed with a gas furnace?
Yes - and it’s actually a great setup. This combination is called a dual fuel system, and it pairs a heat pump with a gas furnace as the backup heat source rather than electric heat strips.
Here’s how it works: the heat pump handles your heating and cooling during mild to moderate temperatures, where it runs most efficiently. When outdoor temps drop to a point where the heat pump loses efficiency - typically somewhere between 25°F and 40°F depending on the system - the gas furnace automatically takes over. You get the efficiency of a heat pump during the bulk of the heating season and the raw heating power of gas when the weather turns brutal.
For a region like Zanesville that sees real winter cold, dual fuel makes a lot of sense. Gas furnaces produce higher-temperature heat than a heat pump alone, so during those extreme cold stretches, your comfort doesn’t take a hit. The crossover point between the two systems can be configured to match your local climate and utility costs, so you’re always running whichever source is most economical at any given moment.
A few things worth knowing: the system does require both a gas line and an outdoor unit, so it’s best suited for homes that already have gas service. The thermostat also needs to be compatible with dual fuel operation to manage the handoff correctly — this is one of those wiring and configuration details that has to be done right for the system to perform as intended. When it is, though, a dual fuel system is one of the most comfortable and cost-effective setups available.