Hi folks, I got a heat pump installed at my home and I’m looking to better understand when/how it switches over to backup fuel in the winter.
My unit is the LENNOX ELITE EL18XPV SERIES, which I found heating specs on here
It is installed in conjunction with a heating oil fired boiler and an aqua coil as the backup heat source.
When it was installed, I asked, and the installer indicated that the heat pump will switch over to the boiler at about 37F.
What I don’t fully understand though, is that this unit was billed as a variable speed/inverter, so it seems it should be able to run at lower temperatures than 37. The website above seems to indicate it should produce 31,800 BTU/h at 17F, so can I set the “switch-over” temperature of outside to be lower to use less oil?
Idk about that unit specifically, but dual-fuel setups do generally have a way to set their switchover points and contractors are basically always very conservative with where they set them… I think largely due to them not wanting callbacks on someone’s house not heating up fast enough.
You’ll have to research your whole setup and figure out where that is.