Heat Pump Customer Education at Handover

Purpose

This standing instruction guarantees that a customer taking delivery of a heat pump has been shown, with the system running, every normal behavior that a furnace-trained person reads as a fault, and has said each one back before the truck leaves.

Four behaviors generate almost all first-season heat pump callbacks and none of them is a defect: supply air that feels cool on the hand, a system that runs nearly continuously, steam and a loud clunk off the outdoor unit during defrost, and a thermostat that appears to fight a deep setback. Every one of those is the equipment working. A customer who was not told is not being unreasonable when they call; they were sold a machine that behaves nothing like the one it replaced and nobody explained the difference. The callback is free to the customer and it is not free to the shop.

Safety actions that gate the work

• This handover runs the equipment with people standing next to it. Keep the customer, and any child or dog, clear of the outdoor fan, and take no grille or panel off while they are beside the unit.
• Where the backup is gas or propane, say the gas-odor action out loud before you leave: everyone leaves the building immediately, no switches touched, no lights, no phone used inside, call the gas utility from outside.
• Tell them what a burning smell means and what to do: turn the system off at the thermostat, and if the smell persists, off at the breaker, then call. That instruction is worth more than any of the efficiency material.
• Never tell a customer to clear ice off the outdoor coil. Nobody chips ice off a coil, including us. A punctured tube is a refrigerant release in their yard and a repair they will be quoted for. The instruction is off at the thermostat, then call.

Scope

Covers the customer education portion of a handover on a residential or light-commercial air-source heat pump, ducted or ductless, with electric or fuel backup, at new installation or after a control change that alters how the system behaves.

Does not cover the general equipment handover walkthrough, which owns registration, warranty terms, the equipment tour and the paperwork, and into which this procedure fits as the heat-pump-specific part. Does not cover the installer menu settings, which the thermostat SOP owns and which this procedure reads out of the configuration sheet rather than sets. Does not cover the backup heat sizing arithmetic, which this procedure quotes from the balance point worksheet.

Roles and handoffs

Procedure

1. Do this with the system running in heating, at a register the customer actually uses. Acceptance: a supply and return pair measured in front of them and written on the card, with the outdoor temperature beside it. Wrong looks like a handover at the kitchen table with a manual, which teaches nothing they will remember in January. Stop rule: if the system cannot be run in heating that day, the education visit is rebooked rather than delivered dry. Hazard: probing at a register with the blower running, so keep the probe lead clear of the grille and out of a child's reach.

2. Teach the supply air temperature first, because it produces more calls than everything else combined. Show them the number you just measured against what a furnace does: a gas furnace commonly delivers 120 to 140 F supply, a heat pump 90 to 105 F in mild weather and lower as it gets colder. Their hand sits near 90 F, so heat pump supply air reads as barely warm even though it is well above the room air it is replacing. Acceptance: the customer puts a hand in the airflow, hears the two numbers, and acknowledges it. Wrong looks like skipping this because the house feels fine today. Hazard: none at this step, it is a demonstration at a register.

3. Teach continuous runtime as the design, not as a symptom. A heat pump delivers less heat per minute and makes it up in minutes, and a variable-capacity unit deliberately runs at low output for hours rather than cycling. Acceptance: the customer states back that long runtime is expected and that short, frequent cycling would be the thing to call about. Wrong looks like promising it will run less than the furnace did, which is the opposite of true. Hazard: none, this is a conversation in front of a running system.

4. Name the four defrost cues, and show one if the weather will produce it. Steam and vapor off the outdoor unit, a whoosh or a clunk as the reversing valve shifts, the outdoor fan stopping while the compressor keeps running, and indoor air that may cool briefly or bring backup heat in. Tell them it lasts a few minutes and repeats most often in wet weather near freezing. Acceptance: all four named to them, and where a defrost cannot be produced that day, photographs shown and that fact written on the card. Wrong looks like leaving this out because it is mild; the first defrost they see unwarned gets reported as the unit on fire. Hazard: this is the step done standing at the outdoor unit, so put the customer behind you and clear of the fan before you point at anything.

5. Teach emergency heat as a lockout, not a boost, and hand over the number. Emergency heat switches the compressor off and runs the backup alone, at several times the input for the same delivered heat, and the balance point worksheet for this equipment states the outdoor temperature below which the backup alone will not hold the house. Acceptance: the customer states back that emergency heat turns the outdoor unit off, and the temperature limit is written on the card in plain language. Wrong looks like calling it a boost or an extra stage, which is how a customer ends up running it for a week. Hazard: none at this step, but this is the setting that costs them the most money if it is misunderstood.

6. Teach setback, the filter and the outdoor unit in one pass. Name the recovery behavior the shop configured and why a deep setback brings backup heat in on the way up; show the filter, its size and its interval; and give the outdoor unit rules: nothing stacked against it, no tarp over it while it is in service, snow and leaves kept clear, and if it ices up, off at the thermostat and call. Acceptance: filter location, size and interval written on the card, and the outdoor rules stated. Wrong looks like handing over an app login instead. Hazard: walking them to the outdoor unit in winter, so watch their footing on the same iced pad you were warned about.

7. Ask them to say it back, and do not accept a nod. Three questions, unprompted: what does emergency heat do, what does a defrost look like, and why does the air feel cool. Acceptance: three answers that are substantially correct, recorded on the card in their own words, plus the card signed with one copy left at the equipment. Wrong looks like asking whether they have questions, which reliably gets a no from someone who does not yet know what to ask. Stop rule: a wrong answer means re-teach and re-ask that question before the visit closes, and both the first and the corrected answer go on the record. Hazard: none at this step, it is a conversation, and it is the step that decides whether the shop gets the January call.

The record this produces

A normal-and-not-normal card, signed, with one copy left at the equipment and one with the customer:

• The measured supply and return pair, the outdoor temperature that day, and the register it was taken at
• The two supply temperature ranges, furnace against heat pump, in plain numbers
• The four defrost cues, and whether a defrost was witnessed or shown in photographs
• What emergency heat does, and the outdoor temperature below which the backup alone will not hold, quoted from the balance point worksheet
• Filter location, size and interval; outdoor unit clearance rules; the ice instruction
• The three step 7 answers in the customer's own words, including any that had to be re-asked
• The gas-odor and burning-smell instructions, where they apply
• Signature and date

The office reads the step 7 answers before the first cold snap follow-up call, so the call opens on the thing that customer got wrong rather than on a script. The manager reads the same column across a season, because a question that comes back wrong repeatedly is a card that needs rewriting, not a crew that needs reminding.

Worked pass: new ducted heat pump with a 7.5 kW electric backup, handover at 44 F outdoor

Step 1: system run in heating. At the living room register the supply measures 96 F against a return of 68 F, so the rise is 96 minus 68, which leaves 28 F, with the outdoor temperature recorded at 44 F. Written on the card.

Step 2: customer's hand in the airflow at that register. Told 120 to 140 F for the furnace she had and 90 to 105 F for this in mild weather, with her own 96 F measurement in front of her, and that her hand sits near 90 F which is why it reads as barely warm. Acknowledged.

Step 3: told long runtime is the design. Stated back correctly, including that short repeated cycling would be the thing to call about.

Step 4: at 44 F outdoor no defrost can be produced, so the four cues are named and the shop's photographs shown, and the card records that a defrost was described rather than witnessed.

Step 5: emergency heat taught as a lockout. The balance point worksheet filed to this equipment states that the 7.5 kW bank alone holds the house down to about 28 F outdoor, read from that sheet, and that figure goes on the card in plain language.

Step 6: recovery behavior named, filter location, size and monthly check written down, outdoor rules given including no tarp in service, and the ice instruction given as off at the thermostat and call.

Step 7 FAILS on the first question. Asked what emergency heat does, she answers "extra heat for really cold days." Stop rule taken: re-taught at the thermostat with the compressor lockout shown, then re-asked. Second answer recorded in her words: "it shuts the outside unit off and runs the electric heat on its own, and it will not hold the house if it is below about 28 outside." The other two answers came back correct first time: defrost described as steam and a clunk for a few minutes, and the cool air explained as lower temperature over longer runtime. All three recorded, with the first wrong answer left on the record beside the corrected one.

Checking the pass against the sections above: step 1's acceptance names a measured pair with the outdoor temperature, and the run prints 96 F, 68 F, the subtraction and the 44 F. Step 2's acceptance is that the customer hears both ranges against her own measurement, and 96 F sits inside the 90 to 105 F range step 2 states for mild weather, which is consistent rather than coincidental. Step 5's 28 F limit is quoted from the balance point worksheet and labelled as read, not derived here. Step 7's acceptance is three substantially correct answers, and the run reports one failing, its stop rule, and the corrected answer, rather than reporting three passes.

References

• The balance point worksheet filed to this equipment, which is where the emergency-heat-alone temperature limit comes from
• The thermostat configuration sheet from the installation, which names the recovery behavior and lockout values this procedure reads out
• Equipment manufacturer's owner literature for filter size and interval and for outdoor unit clearance requirements
• See related: equipment handover walkthrough with the customer, backup heat sizing and lockout configuration, thermostat replacement and configuration handover, cold weather performance complaint visit