Heat Pump Repair in Tuscaloosa, AL
Homes here need heat from November through March and cooling from May through September. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Tuscaloosa County will get in touch.
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Ten months of work a year, in Tuscaloosa County weather
Your heat pump runs from November through March to keep the house warm, then switches over and runs May through September to cool it. That is ten months out of the year with almost no rest between seasons. Most homes here heat with electricity, so when the heat pump struggles, there is no backup furnace quietly taking over.
Winter nights average 36°F, cold enough that the unit runs long cycles to hold the temperature, and the reversing valve that switches it between heating and cooling gets worked hard in both directions. Summer afternoons average 90°F, which pushes the compressor and outdoor coil for hours at a stretch. Tuscaloosa County has seen 66 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and wind-blown debris can bend the outdoor coil's fins or knock the unit out of level. With 18% of Alabama households losing power for a day or more in 2024, a heat pump that does not restart on its own after an outage can leave a house with no heat or cooling until someone resets it.
- 5 months
- November through March, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 36°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 90°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Alabama requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Contractors issues that license, and it covers the contractor, not each job. The same license that covers a new install down the street is what covers a heat pump repair in your house.
Because a heat pump moves refrigerant, whoever opens that side of the system also needs an EPA Section 608 certification. That is a federal rule and it applies no matter what state you're in, separate from the Alabama license. Between the two, the contractor working on your heat pump is accountable both for the trade and for handling refrigerant.
Source: Alabama Board of Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractors
- Why is my heat pump blowing cold air?
- In heating mode, a heat pump puts out air that feels cool next to your skin even when it's working right, because the air coming out is warmer than the room but still well below body temperature. If the air is actually cold, not just cool, check that your thermostat is set to heat and not fan only. If the system is stuck in defrost or the outdoor unit is caked in ice, it will blow cold air until that clears. A contractor can tell you whether the reversing valve, which switches the system between heating and cooling, is stuck in the wrong position.
- Why is there ice on my heat pump?
- Some frost on the outdoor unit during a cold snap is normal, and the system should melt it off on its own every so often through a defrost cycle. Thick ice that stays, or ice that builds up even when it isn't that cold out, points to a problem. Low refrigerant, a failing defrost control, or a fan that isn't moving air across the coil can all keep the coil too cold to shed ice. Winters here rarely stay below freezing for long, so heavy ice that doesn't melt between defrost cycles is worth having looked at rather than waited out.
- Why is my heat pump running but not cooling?
- If the outdoor unit and indoor blower are both running but the air isn't cold, start with the filter. A clogged filter chokes off airflow across the indoor coil and can ice it over, which cuts cooling even though everything sounds like it's working. Check that the outdoor unit isn't blocked by leaves, grass clippings, or anything sitting close to it, since it needs open air around it to release heat. If airflow looks fine on both ends and it's still not cooling, low refrigerant from a leak is a common cause, and that's a repair for a contractor, not something to top off yourself.