Electric heater not working

[Jberry805]

2021 294rl, the electric heater is not working. You can feel air blowing out but no heat.

Can anyone point me to a trouble shooting guide or maybe some things to check?

I checked all fuses and tried Turing it off and on

[AZ Traveler]

Jake,

I assume you are talking about your heat pump on your air conditioner. They typically do not add heat if the outside temp is below 40 deg.

[dieselguy]

Or ... are you talking about the fireplace or do you refer to the floor registers as "electric heat"? I hesitate to even ask this, but in reference to the floor heat, is your propane turned on?

[Jberry805]

Originally Posted by AZ Traveler

Jake,

I assume you are talking about your heat pump on your air conditioner. They typically do not add heat if the outside temp is below 40 deg.

It was in the 30s last night

Yes I am talking about the heat pump.

[Jberry805]

Originally Posted by dieselguy

Or ... are you talking about the fireplace or do you refer to the floor registers as "electric heat"? I hesitate to even ask this, but in reference to the floor heat, is your propane turned on?

Sorry referring to the heat pump with the a/c. Fire place is working just fine.
Also floor heat or propane heat runs fine to

[AZ Traveler]

Originally Posted by Jberry805

It was in the 30s last night

Yes I am talking about the heat pump.

You need to use the furnace when it gets that cold. Other options include your fireplace, portable electric or gas heaters and moving further south.

[Daryles]

Originally Posted by Jberry805

It was in the 30s last night

Yes I am talking about the heat pump.

As mentioned above, these RV heat pumps dont work when it gets down to about 40⁰F.

Newer model house heat pumps can work down below 32⁰F depending on their efficiency rating.

[dieselguy]

Just for conversation involving heat pumps. My stick house has natural gas heat, so after this winter with natural gas issues I may change my tune. My house had a heat pump option on the AC. I could never afford to use it compared to just heating with gas. Last year when I replaced my heating and cooling systems, two separate contractors didn't even offer a heat pump option in their estimates. They cited cost of operation in my area as a factor, but would put one in if I really really wanted one. I'm guessing some of you have experienced the opposite in your stick house, but I'm just wondering if it has something to do with region of the country and utility prices.

[mlh]

dieselguy. It depends on how cold it gets in Kansas and if you wont to use a heat pump for all of your heat. Here in western Virginia it usually don’t get below probably 10 degrees. My mini split will go down to -13 degrees but efficiency falls off but it’s still cheaper than natural gas. Not all mini splits are the same efficiency they can range between 15 or so SEER to well over 30. Most ducted systems are about 20 SEER. Then you need to look at what percentage of heat you loose in your ducts. Most systems loose loose 10% or more. Mini splits loose less than 1%. A lot of new ducted heat pumps are inverter technically, they like mini splits only put out enough heat or cooling to maintain the set temperature so you don’t get the several degrees variation you get with a normal system. My mini split runs almost all the time except when the outside temperature and inside temperature are close.
If I were in your shoes I think I would have put in a inverter heat pump. It would be cheaper to run in moderate temperatures with less temperature variation. I think it gets colder in Kansas than Virginia so I would have a gas back up system for when it gets cold.
Let me add. Before we had the mini split we had geothermal. We have a very small house to have geothermal less than 1200 SF. The mini split is cheaper to run than the geothermal. We have several schools with geothermal. When any school needs a new heat system it will be inverter like a mini split, it’s cheaper to run and maintain.
Lynwood

[ACKLM8]

If your ambient temp was down in the 30's then you are probably just up against the efficiency curve of the heat pump. They don't stop working at 40 degrees, but these are small units and they simply don't have the stones to pull a lot of heat out of the air when it gets colder. That said, I ran our heat pump during a cold spell when the outside temp was 37 degrees (accurately measured) and the heat pump was putting out air at 104 degrees (also accurately measured). Still, that's nothing compared to the gas furnace. Just sayin'.

[Cat320]

We have a heat pump, but never use it. If it's cold enough that we require more heat, the HP is no good...and we use two Lasko towers.

[twindman]

Heat pumps have changed a lot! My first one was in Iowa in 1977. New house with no gas service because of shortage at that time. Heat pump switched to full electric coil heat at an adjustable temp. It was set at 20 I think when I moved in. I checked the meter one time and when coil kicked in, it spun around 4 times as fast! I eventually decided I wanted to stay warm rather than save money! I bumped up set point to around 30-35 I think it was.
Oh, by the way, the temp of air coming out when on heat pump was 65 degrees! That is HEAT, not AC LOL. Used a blanked from Oct 1 to Apr 1.