This content was created by Derek Cole. This content was uploaded by Derek Cole. This is a podcast episode titled "268. Steam and Backup Heat" (PODCAST) published January 18, 2021. Derek Cole is the primary speaker/host and is joined by a second announcer (labeled Speaker B) who provides the intro and outro. The episode is a short home-comfort/energy-savings segment explaining heat pump behavior — why backup heat activates at cold temperatures and during defrost cycles, why you may see steam, and reassurance that this is usually normal. The episode also directs listeners to simmons1hour.com for a free PDF about steam from heat pumps and encourages sharing, rating, and listening to other episodes.
Questions this episode answers
January 18, 2021.
When it gets 40 degrees (F) or below outside.
simmons1hour.com/steam
Chapters
Foreign.
Hey, this is Derek Cole and welcome.
To the Derek Cole Podcast.
This podcast is all about home comfort and energy savings. The majority is really comprised of short audio clips of advice and answers to questions that we've been asked over the years. We also kind of sprinkle in the Ask Derrick Cole show audio, which is a much longer Q and A kind of program. If you like this episode, and I hope you do, I would love for you to share it on social with others. Just take a screenshot of the program and hashtag it Derek Cole so I can see you. But let's get into today's episode.
Foreign. Hey, what's up, guys? Derek Cole here and I wanted to jump on real quick because with these cold temps, cold mornings, cold nights, cold days, your if you have a heat pump, your backup heat will come on. It will activate.
If you have a heat pump.
Do not be alarmed when this happens because the backup heat really serves two main reasons. The first is to supplement your heat pump. When it gets 40 degrees or below outside, the heat pump needs help. So your bag of heat is there for that reason, to keep you comfortable in the house, to keep the set point you have. So when it needs to activate, it activates and that's why it's on. But also during the defrost cycle, because what happens in the heat mode is that it's the heat pump is extracting the heat from the outdoor air. So with that happening, frost builds up on the coals outside. So at some point that frost needs to be removed, it needs to come off. So what the heat pump does is it actually changes and reverses refrigerant and switches over to AC mode. Because in AC mode, you're pushing heat out of the coals. So to melt that frost, it is now putting the heat in the house out to the outdoor unit to melt.
That coal, to melt the frost on that coal.
So when that happens, the back of the heat comes on so you don't get cold inside. So you maintain that set point.
A lot of times you'll hear that heat bump made that loud noise. You're like, what's going on? And you look outside and see the steam. Now you're like, oh, now it's really going on. But when that happens, it's just the defrost cycle. In most cases, that's normal. That's fine. I just didn't want you to be alarmed. With these temps. We've had leg B, it's going to happen more and more. The defrost cycle or the backup heat coming on to supplement the actual heat pump itself. But if you guys need us, call us. Go online simmons1hour.com if you want to know more about steam from your heat pump, There's a small PDF I put together. It's simmons1hour.com/steam./steam. That's free. If you want to get that, download it, read up on it.
Really, it's just something that I didn't want you to be alarmed about because it's not that often that these temperatures hit these parts. So we're ready for it. If you need us, call us or go online simmons1hour.com.
Well, what did you think? If you found any value in this episode whatsoever, please share it with your friends. And I encourage you to also rate and review on this platform. If you want to be really awesome, download the last six episodes.
Take a listen. It would really help us out with.
The rankings on this platform. Thank you so much for listening. Please reach out on social if you need any help or we can help in any way, please reach out. Until next time.
