Our heating unit has been inoperable for a couple of years now and we have been relying on the emergency heat setting every winter. Now the emergency heat is not working properly. This is our last resort and we need to correct the problem. When the emergency heat is on now, it makes the house smell like its on fire, it is much louder than it used to be, and it doesn't put out heat. We checked everything out and we can't find the problem. We need someone who knows what they are doing.

You need to hire a professional to come in and properly test every component. I had a boss who lived in a 1/2 million dollar home but was too cheap to call in a professional heating person when his heat pump or geothermal system was not heating the home in the winter. It turned out that the bottom of the pump had a burned out component and the system didn't work properly due to that. He had spent the entire winter in a chilly house due to being frugal and not calling in a professional to fix it. PS The part and labor was around $125 to fix it.

Does the blower run when set to emergency heat? If not, try setting the thermostat fan selector to "ON".