When temperatures fall below a certain temperature, it takes it toll on people as well as putting a strain on the components of an electric heat pump. With nearly 60% of Tennessee residents and 51% of Virginians requiring these units to help heat and cool their homes, these units could be in trouble from this week’s arctic blast. Service Manager of HVAC Inc, Mark Clevinger, said although a checkup will not fix all the immediate problems it will help to prevent anymore occurring.

On Monday when the temperature was starting to plummet and expected to fall to around zero, Clevinger said, “Your heating equipment is kind of like your car, people don’t worry about it until it’s broken. The best advice is don’t procrastinate. You need to have technicians check your heat pump before stressful times to make sure it performs up to standards.” All Traditional pumps will do exactly what their name implies – they will draw in what heat is in the air before discharging it out the top. However, when it drops below 20° there is very little precious heat which can be extracted.

“At zero degrees, units are going to be stressed and doing all they can do. That’s why it’s important to have it working properly. You can’t sit on the couch and then go run a marathon. It’s the same with the unit,” he added. According to a written statement which was issued on Monday, The Tennessee Valley Authority does not expect to reach record levels despite forecasting high demands for electricity. The electricity demand was stated to reach 31,000 MW on Monday night and 32,000 MW today with is just 572 MW short of TVA’s all time winter demand record.

TVA, which provides powers to both Bristol cities, has taken steps to ensure that there is no power outage for its 9 million customers in parts of seven southeastern states. Chip Pardee , the Chief Operating Officer said, “TVA has been monitoring and carefully preparing for this blast of potentially record-cold weather since last week. We have taken proactive measures so the system remains robust and reliable for our customers and power users across the valley.”