AboutJ Cook Expertise With 25+ years experience, I am familiar with residential, commercial, and industrial HVAC equipment including but not limited to boilers, chillers, reciprocating and screw compressors. I am trained in all manners of control wiring.
Experience I currently have three HVAC licenses and Refrigeration license by the State of North Carolina. I have been in this field for over twenty years. I have been a service technician for a contractor and also worked at a state college in the repair and maintenance of steam lines and equipment. I am currently the Building Maintenance Superintendent for a municipality.
Question I installed a new Hunter programable thermostat model 44760 on my heat pump system. Since installation it seems as if it is calling up the secondary heat strips way to often compared to the old thermostat, even when it is not that cold outside. Is there a setting on it that I should change? Would decreasing or increasing the system cycle time help?
Answer I do not have a diagram for this particular stat, but the strips should be wired to the W or sometimes E terminal. The strips on 99% of the heat pump thermostats are designed to energize if the heat pump cannot raise the temperature and it falls 2 degrees below set point and it then energizes the strips. In other words if the heat was set at 70 and the heat pump is on and the temperature drops to 68, at that point the strips energize. Depending on the stat, they will either stay energized until the system satisfies at slightly above setpoint, or the strips will drop back out at set point. I would make sure the heat pump is functioning properly. A simple test of the unit charge is to go to the outdoor unit after it has ran for at least 5 minutes, feel the largest insulated line close to the outdoor unit where there is no insulation and see if it is hot. It should either be too hot to keep your hand on or close to it. Thanks J
