I bought a house with a heat pump system in Summer 2010. Since I live in Ohio, the temp dropped now below 32 degrees. The heat pump provides sufficient heat, and it seems the pump itself is running only if necessary (I assume a green light at the thermostate indicates when the pump itself is working).
I recognized that the inside fan/blower however seems to run constantly and only shuts off once in a while (with the effect that it blows also colder air). The electricity bill was slightly up in November, even it was already cold, but it looks like the December usage is double than November.
Is it normal that the inside fan/blower runs almost 24h, but not the heat pump? If not, what might cause the problem?

Thanks for your help
Martin

There are fan control switches to turn the blower on and off. If it is blowing cold air before shutting off, try moving the fan OFF switch to a higher temperature. I don't know where the switch is located on your unit, try looking in the manual or googeling the model for a manual. In very cold weather, a heat pump will run most of the time. We live in Atlanta, have a gas heater and my DEC bill was 60% higher than NOV. Hope you have a cold weather unit.

Thanks for your answer - I will try that later when I am home - Btw, I lived in Johns Creek/Duluth in 2009!

Son, you moved the wrong way!

Unfortunately, there is no switch... guess I need to live with the situation. I am planning to replace the old thermostate with an electronic - hope that helps to reduce the bill :-)
We moved (back) to Ohio because of family. I did't like the traffic in the ATL area, but I hate the cold up here!

I looked at the issue again - just want to make sure that the "behavior" of the system is normal:

I have an older T-stat with I can set to heat, Emergency heat, cool, and OFF, plus Fan to AUTO and ON. It has two status lights, one for Aux heat (I assume that is the heat pump), and one for Emergency heat.

Actual outside temperature is about 30F during the day and around 10-20F during the night.
I have set the T-stat to 72F. The outside heat pumps runs for a while (maybe 10 minutes)and than turns off. While running, the "Aux Heat" light on the T-stat is on. The system provides warm air inside the house.
The inside blower blows almost 95% of the time, even when the heat pump stopped.
If I reduce the temp of the T-stat to 70 or 69F, the inside blower stops for a short amount of time (5-10 minutes) and than starts over.

I assume the relay is OK, and that it is normal that the inside blower blows almost all the time to keep the temperature? I have checked the heat pump inside and there is no visible control to set the blower.

Can someone confirm that my system is working properly and that I have to suck it up that the inside blower is running constantly during winter times, resulting in way higher elecricity bills?

Thanks
Martin