Auxiliary heat is the backup doing the primary's job, at electric resistance prices. Constant aux heat usually means the heat pump itself has a fault, a defrost problem in freeze weather, low refrigerant, a failed compressor stage, or a thermostat configuration that calls the backup too early. During the 2021 freeze, whole neighbourhoods learned to read that bill spike as a system report. The diagnosis separates the causes in order, and the repair is priced on which component handed its work to the backup. What not to do is switch to emergency heat and forget it: that setting is the most expensive way to heat a home in Texas, priced by the week.
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