Dual fuel systems consist of a heat pump and gas furnace, where the heat pump is the primary source of heat and the gas furnace acts as a source of backup heat. In this setup only one source of heat runs at a time, but can you run both at the same time? Find out what Dan Danowski has to say in this episode of "Ask the Expert".
Video Script:
Our first question for the day is from Bill from the internet in America. My question is on a dual fuel system: is it OK to run a gas furnace and heat pump at the same time while in defrost mode?
Yeah, you can. If the heat pump is in defrost mode you can have the gas furnace going. If it's not in defrost mode, that's bad. You don't want to run the furnace and the heat pump at the same time. The hot discharge from the furnace will go onto the hot coil and cause the compressor to go out on high pressure.
It could explode and kill everyone within a 30 mile radius. I'm just kidding, it won't do that I don't think. I've never heard of that.
What I would recommend is if it gets to the time of year where you're going to have low temperatures, you're probably just going to want to run the gas furnace and maybe not the heat pump.
The point is, you'll want to run those separately unless the coil is in defrost and that's OK.
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