Hvac School - For Techs, By Techs

In today’s short podcast, Bryan discusses electric heat, how we use it in our work, and what it does.   Also called heat strips or heat elements, electric heat is a supplemental heat source that we usually see on heat pumps. We generally see them in fan coils within a cartridge or a kit at the top of an air handler. However, not all systems have backup heat.   We want to avoid running electric heat as much as possible because it is inefficient. There is almost nothing we can do to make heat strips more efficient; they will usually yield around 3.41 BTUs per watt.    We usually only run electric heat when a heating system can’t keep up with the heat loss. However, the electric heat often runs more often than it should, which can cause inefficient conditions. You can avoid inefficient conditions by programming the thermostat properly.   If you reduce the voltage on the heat strips, the less heat they will produce. Current ratings also differ between 208v or 240v applications. When you have more voltage, you’ll