I got bad news and good news

[rickymouse]

First the bad news : It's 13 degrees. My heat pump just went out. Have no idea why.
I heard the air stop and just thought it had shut itself off, but my wife noticed there was no reading on the thermostat. Mine doesn't have batteries, it runs off the unit. So, I went to the garage to reset the main breaker and it popped as soon as I tried to reset it. Then, I went to the outside box and saw one of the 2 had tripped, so I rest that one and then went back to the garage to reset the main. Popped as soon as I tried. So now, I get to wait till somewhere is open to get a service tech out here to figure it out. It's only 3 years old and I'm not messing with it.

This is probably about to get expensive.

More bad news. The wick on one of my kerosene heaters is too short, so it's un useable. I got one heater for a 2400 sq ft house.

If you have a separate switch or breaker for the heat pump unit right at the unit, try shutting that off then turn on the main breaker.  It could be there is something else on that circuit that is shorted

I worked with my cousin who had a master electrician licence for quite a lot of hours, I had enough hours to get my journeyman license but I hired him to work, I paid him, and there was no payroll to me to prove my hours.  I knew the county head electric inspector, and he said I could take some classes he gave for continuing education to get my final hours, but I started talking to him about the proof of working and he said oh oh....I did a lot of electrical work for people, the inspectors could tell my work on jobs, because I was very picky and very thorough, I exceeded all the code requirements and I made all circuits easy to trace, putting all wires in easy to trace patterns with lots of electrical staples.  I had as good a reputation on my electrical work as I did on building houses with the inspectors because I always exceeded the requirements and never cut corners.....My cousin pulled the permits and I worked under him on the electrical.  I also had plumbing contractors  I worked under on jobs.  I liked doing all kinds of work, and I had the connections to do it legally.

I only did research on heat pumps, I never actually worked on them.  I did work installing furnaces and boilers but heat pumps I did not do anything with.  I thought about doing a heat pump in my house when I built it, but I would have had to do a return well to put the water back into after extracting the energy from the water.  Trouble is, I am in an underground river, how do you put water back into another well when the wells are both almost artesian?  I do not need a pump to pump the water out of my well, I could have put a resavour in the basement, and pumped out of that to feed the house.

the heat pump, could the  feed or return line be frozen?  That could short out a pump or make it not pump.

The heat pumps that take heat out of the outside air to heat a house don't work well around here in the winter, it is very cold in the winter here lots of times...they can freeze up so most people don't use them.  At least those are a little more efficient when you go down south but they are not good around here, the snow in the yard and around the house is over three feet deep, with six foot banks when I push or blow the snow.  It is hard enough keeping the new furnace intake and exhaust pipes uncovered, and both are three feet off the ground, good thing the snow drifts away from the house, I usually don't lose my furnace if I shovel there a couple of times a winter....Reminds me, maybe I should go shovel around those again when the weather warms up to twenty some degrees again this weekend during the day.

[Knows]

It's obviously some type of short. Could be it's power supply. Or the components drawing from the supply. Could be a capacitor, diode. 

Since you don't have the training or equipment to isolate the problem. Good idea of yours to not touch anything. Since it is under warranty. 

You need to contact for warranty service. They will likely get some  local company to fix it. 

maybe get electric space heaters to keep the temperatures up. Until you schedule a repair.

[ReturnofBroccoli]

An instant trip is a bad breaker or a dead short. A capacitor would take a few seconds to trip no matter if it is one on the compressor or fan motor. Having a second trip outside in the op, I would say the unit itself has a dead short. 

Cound be a simple problem with the wiring in the outside unit but the wait on the service call is the hard part at those temperatures.

My thoughts exactly

[ReturnofBroccoli]

If you have a separate switch or breaker for the heat pump unit right at the unit, try shutting that off then turn on the main breaker.  It could be there is something else on that circuit that is shorted

I worked with my cousin who had a master electrician licence for quite a lot of hours, I had enough hours to get my journeyman license but I hired him to work, I paid him, and there was no payroll to me to prove my hours.  I knew the county head electric inspector, and he said I could take some classes he gave for continuing education to get my final hours, but I started talking to him about the proof of working and he said oh oh....I did a lot of electrical work for people, the inspectors could tell my work on jobs, because I was very picky and very thorough, I exceeded all the code requirements and I made all circuits easy to trace, putting all wires in easy to trace patterns with lots of electrical staples.  I had as good a reputation on my electrical work as I did on building houses with the inspectors because I always exceeded the requirements and never cut corners.....My cousin pulled the permits and I worked under him on the electrical.  I also had plumbing contractors  I worked under on jobs.  I liked doing all kinds of work, and I had the connections to do it legally.

I only did research on heat pumps, I never actually worked on them.  I did work installing furnaces and boilers but heat pumps I did not do anything with.  I thought about doing a heat pump in my house when I built it, but I would have had to do a return well to put the water back into after extracting the energy from the water.  Trouble is, I am in an underground river, how do you put water back into another well when the wells are both almost artesian?  I do not need a pump to pump the water out of my well, I could have put a resavour in the basement, and pumped out of that to feed the house.

the heat pump, could the  feed or return line be frozen?  That could short out a pump or make it not pump.

The heat pumps that take heat out of the outside air to heat a house don't work well around here in the winter, it is very cold in the winter here lots of times...they can freeze up so most people don't use them.  At least those are a little more efficient when you go down south but they are not good around here, the snow in the yard and around the house is over three feet deep, with six foot banks when I push or blow the snow.  It is hard enough keeping the new furnace intake and exhaust pipes uncovered, and both are three feet off the ground, good thing the snow drifts away from the house, I usually don't lose my furnace if I shovel there a couple of times a winter....Reminds me, maybe I should go shovel around those again when the weather warms up to twenty some degrees again this weekend during the day.

Be careful putting too many staples, they can cause fires. Just enough to hold down the wire is fine 

[KrustyKrab]

An instant trip is a bad breaker or a dead short. A capacitor would take a few seconds to trip no matter if it is one on the compressor or fan motor. Having a second trip outside in the op, I would say the unit itself has a dead short. 

Cound be a simple problem with the wiring in the outside unit but the wait on the service call is the hard part at those temperatures.

A shorted capacitor can shut down the power supply board or throw it into protection mode to prevent excessive current flow past the capacitor.  It will trip a breaker instantaneously.  

Could be a few different things going on, a multi meter would tell all quickly.

[David64]

Finally the good news. 

It was the breaker. Which kinda pisses me off 'cause it was only 3 years old.

I know, I know, could have done it myself, but this thing is under warranty and these damn companies get so picky about it if I so much as turn a screw on a panel, it voids it.

Didn't cost much though. The price of a new 100 amp breaker and hour of time.

More bad news though.....now I don't have a reason to snuggle.

[Caligurl]

I am sitting in 80 degree weather in January. Nice? Maybe but I tend to get headaches in hot weather. I don't complain as much about my weather because I went to Orlando, Florida last August and if you live or visited there, you know what I am thinking.

Wheres your good news?

[chr0naut]

First the bad news : It's 13 degrees. My heat pump just went out. Have no idea why.
I heard the air stop and just thought it had shut itself off, but my wife noticed there was no reading on the thermostat. Mine doesn't have batteries, it runs off the unit. So, I went to the garage to reset the main breaker and it popped as soon as I tried to reset it. Then, I went to the outside box and saw one of the 2 had tripped, so I rest that one and then went back to the garage to reset the main. Popped as soon as I tried. So now, I get to wait till somewhere is open to get a service tech out here to figure it out. It's only 3 years old and I'm not messing with it.

This is probably about to get expensive.

More bad news. The wick on one of my kerosene heaters is too short, so it's un useable. I got one heater for a 2400 sq ft house.

Time to break out the blankets and duvets for everyone. Also, shared body heat can be kinda nice!

Stay snug.

[David64]

I am sitting in 80 degree weather in January. Nice? Maybe but I tend to get headaches in hot weather. I don't complain as much about my weather because I went to Orlando, Florida last August and if you live or visited there, you know what I am thinking.

Wheres your good news?

I live in Kentucky and our weather gets a balmy 100 - 115 in August. I'll skip Florida.
     
There was no good news to start with, but there is now. Post above your's.

[putnam6]

Im lucky Im fine with the cold, especially overnight. I'm not happy unless there is frost inside the windows.

But for everybody else, we have space heaters that work on battery backup and USB electric blankets, just in case.

It's 14 degrees tomorrow, though I'll have to double up blankets