Do you have a dual fuel system? Some sort of system with a heat pump that you are trying to figure out what the lockout temperature should be on the outdoor unit? I've heard it called different things. There's different verbiages out there. Some folks call it the balance point or the balance set point for a dual fuel system. We we always just called it your lockout temperature for your outdoor unit on a dual fuel system.

The reason this is important is if you do have a dual fuel system. First of all, what is a dual fuel system? Well, essentially in most cases. Now there's different types, but essentially it's a outdoor heat pump unit that can run an AC and heat with some sort of fossil fuel backup heat source. So in contrast to you know, a conventional heat pump system where you would have electric heat strips, you would want that system to turn off when it switches to the backup heat.

The reason is we will get into in another video actually an upcoming video. but the reason I wanted to do this video is there's all kinds of misinformation out there. There's all kinds of opinions out there on what that temperature should be set at and I wanted to do a video that if you're a homeowner that has a thermostat, you need to know what that temperature should be set at for that balance point or that lockout temperature. What should that temperature be? Well, I'm going to give you two answers to that question and because there's so many different opinions out there on what that answer should be.

I Remember talking to a homeowner just the other day and they were telling me that I think the temperature should be set at this or that and they were telling me all the reasons why and so I Just you know listened to him and let him set it at whatever temperature he wanted to set it at. But here's the answer to that question. So if you have that kind of system and you just need to know what should the temperature be, the answer is it depends on your home and I know there's other Heating in Air Guys ones that might even comment on this video. that'll say Josh you don't know what you're talking about, the temperature should be this or that.

I'll give you two reasons why it depends on your home. Well, the first reason is it's not just your home, but it's the system itself. Not all heat pumps are created equal. Now if we were talking about a heat pump that was a couple decades ago when I first got in, this industry heat pumps got pretty useless once you started getting below freezing temperatures and they set them at 40 degrees because as you started getting closer and closer to that freezing temperature set point 40 degrees Fahrenheit was a safe number that most heat pumps you could switch to the backup heat and homeowners would stay warm.

In fact, to this day, a lot of thermostats when you buy them, the factory settings are set at 40 degrees. Fahrenheit But now that time has gone on, systems have gotten better and better. You've got heat pumps that can still produce a hundred percent capacity well below freezing temperatures. I Mean we're talking down in the teens, sometimes down close to zero degrees.

Fahrenheit Some of these systems are being able to produce heat based on newer Technologies So you might say well Josh I just need to look up whatever. My heat pump starts to lose capacity at right? You know if I have a heat pump that the manufacturer has come out and said well, our system can blow 100 capacity heating down to this many degrees and that's what that temperature should be set at. So once it starts to lose that capacity then I need it to flip over to the backup heat. Source The problem the two-fold on this.

The second thing is that it depends on your home because not all homes are created equal and this is where it gets to that point where a lot of heating and air techs talk about the balance point because some houses are not insulated the same as others. so you might have a system that can still produce a hundred percent capacity giving you all the UMP if you will of heating all the way down to say five degrees. Fahrenheit But the problem is your home starts to not keep up. The reason is The heat rise on a heat pump system is not as high as a lot of other heating type systems.

We've done videos on that talking about heat rise I Know I'm getting super complicated, especially if you're a homeowner owner that wants to know what's this temperature supposed to be. We're going to talk real quick in just a second on what you should do as a homeowner to figure out what that temperature is. But essentially, if you have a home that's newer, it's very well insulated and once you put some warm air in there, it can kind of hang on to that warm air better than older homes. Then you're able to set that temperature a little lower.

That lockout temperature can be set lower. You can run off a heat pump lower and lower and still keep your home warm. The problem is, if you got it, maybe an older home, a home that maybe isn't quite as insulated as well just because that heat pump can continue to blow that warm air your home. The heat rises not high enough to keep up, and it's essentially you've got this five gallon bucket.

Imagine me having a five gallon bucket of water that I'm dumping water in the top I'm putting heat in that room, right? So I'm dumping water in the top of that bucket. But there's a hole in the bottom of that bucket and the bigger that hole is, the more air or the more water in this analogy that I would have to dump into that bucket. So what do you do then? if you're a homeowner and you've not watched my video and hopefully this is making a little bit of sense compared to a lot of the other information out there. or Heating and Air Guys saying I think it should be said at this or that? What do you do? Well, here's what you do.

You figure out how to program your thermostat if you want to get the most efficiency out of your heat pump system but still remain comfortable in your home. What you've got to do is go to your thermostat and learn how to change that set point temperature and honestly, there's no easy way to do it. You just set it at whatever temperature that makes the most sense for now and you can start to play with it a little bit. You lower it more and more for that lockout and see at what point does that heat pump struggle? At what point does that heat pump not produce enough warm air to keep your house comfortable? So you again might have a really good heat pump that can still produce a lot of Heat at a very low temperature.

But as you start to lower that lockout temperature, you're going to figure out Okay, at 20 degrees for example, my heat pump can't keep up and with my home at 20 degrees that lockout temperature is too low. So we're now going to come back up to say 25 degrees. It's just tough to say there's no real answer to this. We have customers at Griffin Air that we have this conversation from time to time.

We've got a number of customers with dual fuel systems because they live in a rural type community and they can't get natural gas. so they've got LP gas, which can be quite pricey and so they'll get a dual fuel system to account for that. I Hope that helps if you are trying to figure out what that balance point should be. If you're trying to figure out what that lockout temperature should be set at, play with it a little bit, try to get the most efficiency out of it.

You might actually be surprised in the end at what that temperature could be. I've had customers quite surprised at what temperature we could set some of these newer systems at and still keep their home comfortable anyway. I'd Love to know your thought, but if you think this would help someone out, please hit that like button. The more likes it gets the better.

YouTube Seems to think that folks need to see it, but comment down below if you have any thoughts on this or if your home is a surprising temperature. I'd love to hear about that. Thanks for watching Hit that subscribe button. We'll see you next time.