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Pontiac winters average 19°F overnight through December, January and February, and heating is the bigger job for a heat pump all season. That's normal load for the equipment, not a sign something's wrong with how it was sized or installed.
A heat pump that's struggling in cold weather is more often a failed defrost control, a low refrigerant charge, or a reversing valve stuck in one position. Those are known problems with known fixes, and a contractor can check each one directly instead of guessing.
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Heat pumps in Livingston County start the heating load in October, with September the month to catch a weak part before it has to work.
A heat pump that made it through last winter on a failing defrost control or a low charge will usually show it again in the first cold snap.
A heat pump with a stuck reversing valve or a low charge does not just heat poorly, it runs longer to make up for it, and every extra hour shows up on the meter at 15.87 cents a kWh. That cost keeps adding up for as long as the real problem goes unfixed. Catching it now, before the coldest stretch of the season hits, means a contractor is chasing one bad part instead of a system that's been straining for months.
If your heat pump came with an older Pontiac house, repair may not be the real question. Before paying for a big fix, ask the contractor how much life the system has left, so the money goes where it counts.
Find a contractorA heat pump that's working right switches between heating and cooling on its own and holds the temperature you set. When something's wrong, you'll hear it before you can name it. Short cycling, where the unit kicks on and off every few minutes instead of running a steady stretch, points to a bad sensor or a unit that's too small or too large for the job. Air blowing that doesn't feel warm enough isn't always a problem, heat pumps run cooler than a furnace by design, but if a room won't come up to temperature at all, something's blocking the heat from getting where it needs to go. Ice building up on the outdoor unit and not clearing during the defrost cycle means that cycle isn't working. A reversing valve that's stuck will leave you heating when you want cooling, or the other way around. Listen for anything new, a hum that wasn't there before, a clicking that keeps going instead of stopping once the unit starts. None of these fix themselves, and running the system while they're happening usually makes the eventual repair bigger.
Make sure it's set to heat, not auto, and the temperature you want is actually higher than the room. Replace the batteries if it's battery powered. A dead or misprogrammed thermostat looks exactly like a failed heat pump from where you're standing.
Clear away anything piled against it, leaves, snow, a cover someone left on. The outdoor unit needs open air on all sides to pull heat from outside. Some frost on it during a defrost cycle is normal. A thick coat of ice that never clears is not something you can fix yourself, but it's worth knowing before the contractor arrives.
A heat pump that's low on charge or stuck mid-defrost doesn't fail outright. It just works harder to hit the same temperature, and that extra strain lands on the compressor. The compressor is the part that does the real work in the system, and it's not something swapped out quickly. Run it for weeks against a bad reversing valve and it can end up pumping refrigerant against itself, which wears it in a way a failed defrost control never would on its own. Ice that doesn't clear adds its own weight and stress on the outdoor coil and fan. What starts as one bad part left alone can end up taking the compressor down with it.
A repair is worth making when the part that failed is one part and the rest of the system is still sound. A reversing valve, a defrost control, a low charge from a slow leak, these get fixed on their own without touching anything else. The compressor changes that math. Once it has worn from running against a stuck valve or a long refrigerant shortage, the question is not one part anymore, it is whether the system still has enough good years left to be worth putting money into. That is tied to how long the unit has been in service, which a contractor can walk through with you alongside what the compressor is actually doing right now.
