Heat Pump Electric Heat

In the heating season is a little different than the cooling season is that 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, so that switch is to switch it over if you want to do that. 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.