Heat Pump Repair in Huntsville, AL
Homes here need heat from October through April and cooling from May through September. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Madison County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Your heat pump works all year in Huntsville
There's no season off. Your heat pump heats the house from October through April, then switches over and cools it from May through September. That's twelve months of runtime, with the compressor and reversing valve cycling back and forth between modes year round.
Winter nights averaging 33°F mean the system runs a defrost cycle often, melting frost off the outdoor coil so it can keep pulling heat from the air. Summer afternoons near 88°F push the compressor hard on the cooling side. Add in Madison County's storms, nine winter storms and 431 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and the outdoor unit takes a beating from more than just temperature. When the power goes out, most heat pumps come back on by themselves, but a storm that knocks a branch into the outdoor unit or floods it won't fix itself. If your system is blowing air that isn't warm or cold enough, or it's stuck running nonstop, something in that cycle has given out.
- 7 months
- October through April, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 33°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 88°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Alabama requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
That license comes from the Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Contractors. It covers the contractor, not this particular repair.
A heat pump repair means working on the refrigerant side of the system, and that requires EPA Section 608 certification. That rule holds in every state, not just Alabama, so whoever opens the refrigerant lines on this repair needs it regardless of what the state license already covers.
Source: Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractors
- Why is my heat pump blowing cold air?
- In heating mode, air from the vents is meant to feel warm compared to the room, not hot like a furnace, so slightly cool air is not always a problem. If the air is actually cold, the system may be stuck in defrost, low on refrigerant, or the reversing valve may have failed to switch over. A thermostat set to "emergency heat" will also blow air that feels cooler than normal because the compressor is off. A contractor can check the reversing valve and refrigerant charge to find out which it is.
- Why is there ice on my heat pump?
- A little frost during a defrost cycle is normal, especially on cold nights when temperatures drop toward freezing. Ice that stays on the coil or builds up thick usually means airflow is blocked, either from a dirty filter, a coil covered in debris, or a fan that has stopped running. It can also mean the refrigerant charge is low, which drops the coil temperature below freezing even when the air around it isn't that cold. If the ice doesn't clear on its own within a few hours, turn off the system and have a contractor look at it before running it again.
- Why is my heat pump running but not cooling?
- If the outdoor unit is running but the air coming from the vents isn't cold, the most common causes are a dirty filter restricting airflow, a coil covered in dirt or ice, or a refrigerant leak. A failed compressor or a stuck reversing valve will also let the system run without actually cooling the air. On a 88°F afternoon, a system that's low on refrigerant or short on airflow will struggle even harder to keep up. A contractor can check refrigerant levels and airflow to find the cause.