Derek ColeGM, Simmons One Hour Heating & Air · AI HVAC Answers

Emergency Heat and your Heat Pump

28 Jan 2026 · 1 min

Episode

28 Jan 2026 · 1 min

0:00

Derek Cole explains how emergency strip heat works as a backup if your heat pump's compressor fails, but warns it's extremely expensive to run and will spike your electric bill. Repairing the heat pump is far more cost-effective than relying on strip heat for the season.

Chapters

When you have a split heat pump, you can actually still get heat even though maybe your compressor is out or you have a refrigerant problem. In the heat pump, the emergency heat or auxiliary heat will still work, whereas in the cooling season you pretty much have to fix the problem to get cooling. Now another warning is that it costs a lot of money to run strip emergency auxiliary heat that is going to make your electric bill skyrocket. So yes, it will heat if you have something that's failed in the unit, but it's much more efficient or cheaper for you to get a problem fixed than to go all heating season running the strip heat. So don't think, do not think that is the answer.