Alright, here's the deal. My heat doesn't seem to work. I know, its Florida, I don't need it. And normally I would agree, but next week I'm supposed to have "company" and she won't give it up if its cold in the house. Yes, I'll break my no heater rule for that. But that's beside the point.

I have a 4 ton Trane unit with a Payne universal compressor. Its a heat pump set up, all electric of course. When I turn on the heat, the air handler kicks on, but doesn't blow hot air. Its also not calling for the compressor to kick on. When I turn it on Cool and drop the temperature, everything works normally. Compressor kicks on, all is well.

The back story. When I bought the house the a/c didn't work. It blew hot on all modes. The problem wound up being an electrical one. The wiring for the reversing valve was screwed up so the heat pump was always working in heat mode.

I have a Honeywell ChronoTherm CT3611 thermostat. I have checked all the wiring and everything seems to be hooked up properly. I'm at a loss. Please help!!!

 

Have you called an HVAC Pro to come out and look at it.

If you want to trouble shoot things yourself, I would start by getting a cheap thermostat and start there. That may be your problem.

The other problem is that your heat pump may be broken.

 

You're going to sleep with the pregnant friend of yours that you've been complaining about in the other thread?

 

Sigh, no. I posted this before I found out. The HVAC problems still persist, but the does not.

 

No, I haven't called anyone out yet. I still haven't exhausted all of my free options. Talked to my Dad about it. A friend of his used to do HVAC for a living so I'm going to call him tomorrow. I've got a few things I'm going to try tonight too. I'd rather not get a new thermostat, but if I have to, I will. I'm going to put a volt meter on it to see if its a problem with it calling for the heat pump or the heat pump not responding. I have a feeling its on the control side. We'll see.

 

You may need to replace the heat pack in the air handler. Do you know what KW you have? I know alot of the time you can get a re-string kit if any of the elements are burnt up, but you would have to be a licensed HVAC professional in order to buy any and all parts. I am not all that familiar with Trane, but I am pretty sure most electric heat setups are the same

 

Its 5kw heat strips (if I remember right,) but they're just for aux heating. The main heating comes from the heat pump, which seems to be the root of the problem. If that would just kick on, it would be fine.

 

Say what now?

 

Don't ask, long story. It spans a few threads, oddly none of which are in D&R.

 

I have working heat!!! Well, I think I do anyway. Everything seems to be kicking on. Still a bit of a chill in the air, but its only been on for a few minutes. Wound up being the thermostat. I changed it out and all seems well. Although I can't seem to get the heat strips to come on, although again, its only been a few minutes. I'll mess with it more later.

 

On my air handlers the units will turn on, then after 2 mins the heat will kick in. After heating the units then stop heating and run to cool down...

 

I think mine does about the same. There's definitely a cool down cycle where the air handler runs for a few minutes after the heat kicks off, but I don't think there's a lag before it kicks in. I only said the heat strips may not be working because there was no smell. I'd personally rather they don't work, they use way too much electricity.

 

put the heat on like 80 and see if they turn on, my unit has the heat strips come on with emergency/Aux heating if I make the heat temp 2 degrees over the current room temp...

 

Yeah, I saw it call for the Aux heat, but didn't really pay attention. Of course now that its working its warm enough that I don't need it anymore. Oh well, at least I know it'll be there next time I need it.