Many of our customers are confused by the auxiliary and emergency settings on their Cedar Park, TX, heat pumps. Your heating system has two units: one installed indoors and the other outdoors. The unit outside your home is the heat pump, and the indoor unit is the “auxiliary” part of the system. During frigid weather, the outdoor unit gets too cold to provide your home or business with efficient heat. That’s when auxiliary heating mode kicks in, triggering the indoor unit to assist in warming the building. When heat pump coils are in the defrost phase of heating, the heat pump uses auxiliary radiation strips to heat your home. Auxiliary heat is automatic, rather than being controlled manually. If your home’s temperature drops a few degrees below your thermostat setting, the auxiliary heat setting switches on as needed. You probably won’t notice the change unless you see the thermostat’s AUX light turn on. Emergency heating mode is a manual setting on your heat pump thermostat that can be turned on to use the auxiliary heat strips full-time when the outdoor heat pump is not working properly. This allows your home to heat without the heat pump temporarily until the heat pump is back up and running.