Heat strips are electric heating elements inside your indoor air handler. When the heat runs, they warm the air your blower sends out to the vents. In many Florida homes they’re the only heat there is, because the system was built to cool. On a heat pump, they’re the backup. They draw a lot of power. And if your heat is on while the air stays cool, run a few safe checks once, then call a certified technician.
They matter to your power bill, too. Florida’s largest electric utility says in a cold-weather release that heating uses two to three times more energy than cooling. So it’s worth knowing whether yours are doing their job before you need them.
What Are Heat Strips in an A/C System?
They’re coils of electric resistance wire inside the indoor air handler, the box that holds your blower. When the thermostat calls for heat, current runs through the coils and they heat up. The blower pushes air across them. That warm air travels out through your ducts and vents.
A toaster does the same trick on a smaller scale. Wire gets hot, and you feel the heat coming off it. Strip heat is that idea built into your air handler, with a blower moving the warmth where you want it.
You’ll find the air handler indoors, maybe in a garage, a closet or the attic. The strips sit inside that cabinet, in the path the air takes on its way to your ducts. Many systems carry more than one element, so the heat can come on in stages instead of all at once.
In a warm climate, those elements can sit unused for months at a stretch. A problem may not show up until the first cold night of the season. That’s a rough night to find out about it.
Do You Have a Heat Pump or Only Strip Heat?
Florida homes with central A/C tend to fall into one of two setups. On a cooling-only system, the strips are the heat. There’s nothing else. On a heat pump, the outdoor unit does the heating work, and the strips act as backup heat, which your thermostat may call auxiliary heat.
Your thermostat may show an aux or emergency heat light while the strips carry the load. If you want the difference between those two settings, start with what the aux and emergency heat lights mean.
A heat pump owner who thinks the backup heat has quit is looking at a heat pump repair visit. A technician can tell whether the outdoor unit, the strips or the controls are behind the weak heat.
Why Does Strip Heat Cost So Much to Run?
Because they make heat instead of moving it. As a general rule, a heat pump moves heat that’s already in the outdoor air into your house. Strip heat skips that step. It turns electricity straight into heat inside the air handler, so running it for hours draws steady power the whole time.
The utility puts numbers on it. Heating uses two to three times more energy than cooling, according to its January 2026 cold-weather release.
That release also tells customers not to raise the thermostat more than two degrees at a time, so the system’s auxiliary heating doesn’t switch on by accident. The utility says auxiliary heating can add up to $15 a day if it’s used more than 12 hours a day. It bases that estimate on 7.5 kW strip heat running 12 to 16 hours a day. That’s the utility’s figure for that case, not a reading of your bill.
What Are the Signs the Strips Aren’t Working?
The air from the vents is the main tell. The thermostat says heat, the blower is running, and what reaches you feels cool or only lukewarm. On a cooling-only system, that means no real heat. On a heat pump, it can mean the backup heat isn’t coming on when it’s asked to.
- Cool air at the vents with the thermostat set to heat.
- Lukewarm air that never brings the house up, since one element out of several may have quit.
- A breaker that trips when the heat runs.
- Heat that cuts in and out instead of holding.
- A burning smell that doesn’t fade after the first run.
- An aux or emergency heat light that stays on.
A light dusty smell on the first run of the season can be dust burning off the elements, and Honest Air’s post on why a heater smells like burning covers which smells are worth a call. A smell that hangs around can point to an electrical problem, so book a visit instead of waiting it out.
What Can You Check Before You Call?
Three things, and that’s it. Make sure the thermostat is set to heat and set above the room temperature. Check the filter and change it if it’s dirty. Then look at the breaker panel. Strip heat often has its own breaker, and a tripped one can be reset a single time.
If it trips again, leave it off and call. A breaker that keeps tripping is telling you something, and a second reset doesn’t fix it.
Don’t open the air handler. The strips inside run on high voltage, and those panels stay closed for that reason. Anything past the thermostat, the filter and that one breaker belongs to a certified technician.
Strip heat can also shut itself off. Built-in safety limits may cut power to the elements when they run too hot, and blocked airflow can bring that on. It’s one more reason to check a dirty filter first.
Write down what you saw while it’s fresh. When the heat ran, how long it ran, what the air felt like, whether the breaker tripped. That short list saves a technician guesswork.
When to Call a Technician
In Florida, an air handler with strip heat inside it is what many people call an electric furnace. Honest Air’s furnace repair team works on gas furnaces, electric furnaces and hybrid heating systems, so electric furnace repair is the right place to start when the heat side of a cooling-only system quits.
On the heat pump side, every repair begins with a comprehensive inspection of the heat pump system. Honest Air’s technicians examine coils, refrigerant levels, electrical connections, motors and airflow pathways. That’s a full look at the equipment, not a guess from the hallway.
Frequently Asked Questions About Strip Heat
Are heat strips the same as emergency heat?
Not exactly. On a heat pump, emergency heat is the setting that runs the strips by themselves and leaves the outdoor unit out of it. On a cooling-only system there’s nothing to switch between, because the strips are simply the heat.
Is it normal for heat strips to smell the first time they run?
A light dusty smell on the first run can be dust burning off elements that sat idle for months, and it should fade as the system runs.
A smell that hangs around, or one that smells electrical, is worth a technician’s eyes. Shut the heat off at the thermostat and book a visit.
Can a heat strip be replaced without replacing the whole system?
A failed element or its controls can often be handled as parts, without touching the rest of the system. What’s needed depends on what a certified technician finds after checking the equipment. That call gets made at the air handler, not over the phone.
Why does my heat strip breaker keep tripping?
A breaker that trips once can be reset once. One that trips again is pointing at a fault, and that fault needs to be found before the heat runs again. It can sit in the elements, their controls or the wiring that feeds them. Don’t keep resetting it.
Do heat strips run when the A/C is cooling?
No. As a general rule, the strips come on only when the system is calling for heat. A heat pump may also bring them on briefly in some modes. If an aux or emergency heat light is on while the house is being cooled, mention it when you book.
Check Your Heat Before the First Cold Night
A repair or maintenance visit with Honest Air includes its 32-point inspection, and that inspection lists heater amps among the items its technicians check.
If the heat blew cool, tripped a breaker or smelled wrong, book a service visit with Honest Air and tell the technician what the heat did and when it did it.
