Field Guide · JHC Services
Heat Pump Home With a Huge Winter Electric Bill? Read This First
The hidden failure mode where backup strip heat quietly carries the house at triple cost — and the fifteen-minute checks that catch it.
The failure your thermostat hides
Heat pumps fail politely. When the outdoor unit loses capacity — low charge, a failing compressor, a stuck reversing valve — the electric auxiliary heat picks up the load without a complaint. The house stays warm, the thermostat looks normal, and the only symptom is an electric bill that makes you sit down.
Quick checks worth doing
Look at the thermostat during a heating call: if 'Aux Heat' or 'Emergency Heat' shows constantly rather than occasionally on the coldest mornings, backup heat is doing the heat pump's job. Outside, an outdoor unit that never runs in winter — or runs encased in ice — confirms it.
Also worth knowing: a heat pump in normal winter operation blows air that feels cool to the hand (90-100°F, below skin temperature) while heating the house perfectly well. Cool-feeling supply air alone isn't a failure — a bill spike alongside it is.
The configuration version of the problem
Sometimes nothing is broken: the thermostat is simply staged wrong, calling for strip heat alongside the heat pump on every cycle — occasionally since the day of installation. It's a settings fix with hundreds of dollars a winter riding on it, and it's one of the most common corrections we make.
Need this handled instead of explained? See our Heat Pump Repair service — available in Warsaw, KY, Friendship, IN, Turners Station, KY and across our whole service area.
Rather just have it fixed?
Call or text 812-493-3011 — honest diagnosis, flat pricing, and the same straight talk as the guide.