Why is my AC not heating?

Yes it's that time of year again! Shorter days. Colder nights. Time to put that Oodie on. Whether we hate winter or absolutley love it, one thing we all have to do is keep our heating on.

If you've had air conditioning for many years or are experiencing your first winter with it, one question we always get is: "Why is my AC not heating?" or "Why is my AC blowing cold when it should be heating?"

Before you decide to give EVO Air Conditioning a call here are a few tips to try first.

1. Check the mode on your controller.

Grab you remote controller and check what mode the AC is set to. Is it the frost symbol or the sun symbol you see on your display? Don't get confused or caught out thinking the frost symbol must be for winter. The Frost symbol is for "cooling" mode. So go ahead and click on that sun symbol. We want to ensure the system is in "heating" mode.

2. Check the temperature setting

Is it set to 18 degrees in heating or 25 degrees. Some often think that the air conditioner will constantly supply air at the temperature it is set to. This is in fact the target temperature for the AC to achieve in the space it serves much like a thermostat for a central heating system. If the room is already at the temperature or above it then you may just be feeling some air movement.

3. Give it some time to heat up.

Many often expect instant heat from their AC Unit. An AC system will take a bit of time to deliver some heat as the indoor and outdoor units have to communicate with each other and even allow time for it to change the 4 way valve in the outdoor unit. This is so the evaporator or your indoor unit that has been cooling all summer can become the condenser and deliver that heat you require.

4. Is the AC in "Defrost" mode?

When temperatues drop near to freezing an air conditioner that is in heating mode can go into what is known as "defrost" mode. This is all part of the standard operation of your AC unit in heating mode.

As the temperature drops humidity collects onto the heat exchanger on your outdoor unit and as that is essentially cooling the ambient outdoor temperature you will see a sheet of frost or ice forming on it.

To stop this from building up, a defrost mode essentially switches the AC into a cooling mode momentarily to melt that ice or frost you can see on your outdoor unit. During this time you may notice a slight breeze of cooler air from your AC unit that is inside.

Dont worry about this at all. Give the system 10 mins or so to go through its defrost mode and it will provide more heat in no time.

Often a unit will have extra symbols or lights displayed informing you when it is defrosting.

Hopefully if you have tried these 4 tips then you have worked out why your AC unit is blowing cold air in heating mode.

If however you are still unable to find out why it is not heating then please do not hesitiate to give EVO Air Conditioning a call to diagnose what the fault may be on your air conditioner.