You depend on your heat pump to provide comfortable air conditioning and necessary heating for your home. Like all mechanical devices, heat pumps require regular maintenance in order to prevent costly repairs. If you don’t keep a service schedule, you might find yourself in the dead of winter or a heat wave with a nonfunctional system. Your unit will often display signs of trouble that will let you know repairs will need to be made.

• Often the most obvious sign of trouble is simply that your system doesn’t seem to work as well as it used to. Rooms may not heat or cool as well as they had in the past. Heat pumps don’t directly cool or heat air, but help move it — but if they’re malfunctioning, the result is noticeable in the home. A loss in effectiveness can be attributed to several factors.
• A second problem may be that it also turns on and off too often, or it may not come on at all when needed. In these situations, you should check the circuit breaker to see if it’s been tripped. If so, it may be the problem. If your system is tripping its circuit, this means that there may be a serious electrical issue, and the unit should not be used until it has been inspected and repaired.
• The heat pump outdoor unit may freeze over, which is evidenced by a coating of ice on the coils. This is due to a malfunctioning defrost cycle.
• If you notice an odd noise—often grinding, squeaking, or squealing—this is a sure sign that your unit has parts that are worn or out of place.

These issues will cause a noticeable increase in your energy bill.

Smoky Mountain Heating & Air offers professional and convenient services that can help you to maintain your home heat pump. Contact us today for more information or to schedule a service or repair. You can trust us to fix your issue in a prompt, courteous and professional manner.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Asheville, North Carolina and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).

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