Heat Pump Repair in Holiday, FL

The U.S. Census Bureau counts Holiday as a census-designated place. It describes those places as unincorporated communities without an active, functioning governmental structure. A University of Florida GeoPlan Center report on Holiday lists Pasco as its county.

That means the building office for Holiday is the county's. Pasco County Building Construction Services lists its office at 8661 Citizens Drive, Suite 100, in New Port Richey. The county says its plans review and inspections cover the building and trade disciplines governed by the Florida Building Code.

If a repair turns into a replacement, ask your contractor how the county permit and inspection will be handled. Our Holiday HVAC page covers flood zones and the county's role in more detail.

A heat pump moves heat from one place to another with refrigerant, the fluid that carries heat between the indoor coil and the outdoor coil. The Building America Solution Center, run by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, explains the parts that matter for a repair.

The refrigeration cycle

The Solution Center says heat pumps use the same refrigeration cycle technology as your home's refrigerator or air conditioner. In summer the system pulls heat out of the house and dumps it outdoors, just as a central air conditioner does.

The reversing valve

It says heat pumps have a reversing valve, a part that lets them reverse the cycle to pull heat from the outdoor air. That is how the same outdoor unit warms the house in winter.

The defrost cycle

It says heat pumps have a built-in defrost cycle to keep the outdoor coils from icing up. Our guide to heat pump defrost mode explains what that looks like from the yard.

Strip heat

It says all-electric heat pumps come with electric resistance strip heaters for supplementary heat if needed. Your thermostat may call this auxiliary heat. See our guide to auxiliary heat, and if you are not sure what you have, how to tell if you have a heat pump.

Holiday's winter numbers are mild. They come from NOAA's 1991 to 2020 climate normals for the Tarpon Springs station, close to Holiday.

• December: a normal high of 71.4°F and a normal low of 53.5°F.
• January: a normal high of 69.3°F and a normal low of 50.7°F.
• February: a normal high of 72.0°F and a normal low of 53.8°F.

The Solution Center says a standard central heat pump's heating efficiency drops when the outside temperature falls below about 35°F. The normal winter lows at the station sit well above that point. On a cold snap below it, the strip heaters may come on to help.

If your thermostat shows auxiliary or emergency heat running often on mild nights, mention it when you call. Our guide to emergency heat explains the difference between the two settings.

Switch the thermostat to heat on a cool afternoon in late fall and check for warm air at the vents. Finding a fault then is better than finding it on the first cold morning.

Part of this symptom can be normal. The Solution Center says heat pumps blow more air at cooler temperatures than gas- or oil-fired furnaces. Air from a working heat pump can feel lukewarm at the register compared with furnace air.

Air that is plainly cold, with the thermostat set to heat and above the room temperature, is a different matter. The Solution Center describes the parts that let a heat pump heat: a reversing valve that reverses the cycle, a defrost cycle that keeps the outdoor coils from icing up, and strip heaters for supplementary heat. It also says too much or too little refrigerant can affect performance and efficiency. A licensed contractor checks each one.

These are not jobs for a homeowner with a screwdriver. If the outdoor coil is covered in ice that does not clear, switch the system off at the thermostat and call.

Through the hot season a Holiday heat pump runs as an air conditioner. At the Tarpon Springs station the normal daily high stays near 90°F from June through September. The normal low in July and August stays above 75°F.

ENERGY STAR says a typical maintenance check-up should include the following:

• Electrical connections and motors. The checklist includes tightening all electrical connections and measuring voltage and current on motors.
• Controls. It includes checking the system's controls for proper and safe operation.
• The condensate drain. It says to inspect the drain in a heat pump when in cooling mode, and that a plugged drain can cause water damage in the house.

The filter matters in summer too. ENERGY STAR says to inspect, clean or change air filters in a heat pump once a month. It says a dirty filter can damage your equipment, leading to early failure. Our guide to HVAC air filters covers sizes and types.

The GeoPlan Center report counts 12,854 housing units in Holiday, using 2017 to 2021 American Community Survey estimates. Who calls about a broken heat pump depends on which kind of home you are in.

Renters

The same report counts 4,006 renter-occupied units and 5,749 owner-occupied units. If you rent, check your lease and call your landlord or property manager before you book a repair yourself.

Long-time owners

Among owner households, the report gives 2010 as the median year the householder moved in. In other words, half of Holiday's owner households moved in during 2010 or earlier. If the heat pump came with the house, tell the technician what you know about its history, including any past refrigerant top-ups.

Mobile homes

The report counts 1,910 mobile home units in Holiday. The layout of a manufactured home is different from a site-built house, and our guide to mobile home air conditioning explains where the equipment and ducts usually sit.

Older heat pumps may run on R-22, an older refrigerant the EPA also calls HCFC-22. The EPA says that as of January 1, 2020, no new HCFC-22 is made or imported into the United States. It also says the EPA does not require homeowners to replace their existing equipment, and that you can continue to service an existing HCFC-22 system.

If your system leaks refrigerant, the EPA's advice to homeowners is to ask your technicians to locate and repair the leak instead of topping it off. It also suggests asking whether the company's technicians are Section 608-certified, the federal credential for handling refrigerant. Blume has EPA Section 608 certified technicians.

Our guides to converting from R-22 to R-410A and when to replace a heat pump walk through the choices.

Blume Mechanical Service, LLC is a Class A licensed Florida air conditioning contractor (license CAC-1822618) and is fully insured. We are brand-agnostic and service all major manufacturers' equipment. Our office is at 2840 West Bay Drive #114, Belleair Bluffs, FL 33770, and our core service area is Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

You get a written, upfront price before any work starts. When a heat pump is near the end of its life, we lay out repair and replacement side by side and do not sell equipment a home does not need. A replacement is sized with an ACCA Manual J load calculation and Manual S equipment selection. New equipment is commissioned with measured static pressure, airflow and refrigerant charge. Financing is available through Synchrony Bank.

What to have ready when you call

• Whether the problem is heating, cooling or both.
• What the thermostat is set to, what it reads, and whether it shows auxiliary or emergency heat.
• Whether the outdoor unit runs, and whether you see ice on it.
• Whether the home is a house, a mobile home or a rental, and who owns the equipment.
• Whether the system uses R-22, if you know.

Nearby, we also have pages on AC repair in New Port Richey and heat pump repair in Palm Harbor.