We have a heat pump and a gas furnace - the heat pump is supposed to act as our primary heat until temps are below 32 degress when the gas furnace then takes over. Here's the problem - the heatpump is frozen up (coils covered in thick white ice and solid ice partially covering one exterior side of unit). Fan is not running on unit, but it unit "runs" constantly and is not producing any heat. On our thermostat there is an option for emergency heat, which I would think would activate our gas furnace, but instead it seems to just activate the fan w/o any heat.

Any thoughts?? Or does anybody know how we can engage the gas furnace so we can have some heat until we can arrange for somebody to come take a look @ the heatpump?

Sounds like you could have a bad OD fan motor or run cap OR a bad defrost board. But the Emergency heat not coming on could be the result of a couple things, 1- on some units, if the outdoor temp is above a certain temp it will not allow the emergency heat or AUX heat to come on even though the thermostat is calling.2- the unit is wired wrong. You should just call for service instead of messing with it yourself, let a qualified service technician solve the problem for you

Thank you for your reply... tell my checkbook that... we need the furnace on today, but don't have the $$$

I hate to say it but HVAC Companies do take Plastic also. Seriously, It would be very hard to fix your problem without knowing what type of equipment that you have or how it is wired. If you are not in the trade please call a professional in your area or the company who installed it. They may be able to help.

Thanks for the suggestion, but we don't "do" plastic, thank you Dave Ramsey. I got another suggestion elsewhere that seems to be working for now.

Thanks again for your replies...