For the past couple of cold days, my breaker panel has whined audibly when the heat pump has kicked on. Two nights it happened when the “auxillary heat” kicked on, which I might understand since the electric coils eat electrons like you wouldn’t believe. However, I heard the whine again today when the coils weren’t on – and the load was a fraction of what it was.

I’m hoping its just low voltage, caused by the incredible load put on the neighborhood lines due to the weather. On the other hand, it was low voltage that killed our old heat pump. It had worked furiously to heat our 50 degree house once the power returned after last year’s ice storm. Unfortunately, it was competing with the rest of the neighborhood for voltage. The compressor burned out and that was all she wrote.

So you can believe I’ll be keeping my eye on this new heat pump, crossing my fingers that it won’t meet the fate of the last one. It sucks being cold.