Heat Pump Installation and Service Across Jacksonville
The most misunderstood equipment we work on — and the most often sold against. Warm air rather than hot, an outdoor unit that frosts, a cycle that briefly blows cool: all normal. If yours is behaving correctly, we’ll tell you that and leave.
Get a free estimateTell us what it’s doing — we’ll come back fast.
Heat Pump Installation in Jacksonville
One Machine Doing Both Jobs
A heat pump is the same air conditioner you already understand, with a valve that lets it run backwards. In summer there is no difference at all — cooling is cooling. In winter, instead of burning something to make heat, it moves heat that already exists in the outdoor air into your house, which is why it gets more heat out than the electricity you put in. That is also why it is the right equipment for this climate: we have a long cooling season and a short mild winter, which is exactly the shape a heat pump is good at. What most people are never told is what happens on the coldest mornings, and why that shows up on the bill.
Great Dane Heating & Air has kept Jacksonville and Duval County comfortable for more than twenty years. We are a family company — the people who answer the phone are the people who show up — with upfront pricing, comfort techs who treat your home like their own, and a soft spot for shelter dogs. Every job we finish gives back to the Jacksonville Humane Society.
A heat pump runs nearly year‑round here, which means it shows you problems the rest of the year and heating problems only in January. Tap whichever one sounds like your house.
The classic heat pump fault. Cooling and heating are the same machine running in opposite directions, so heat-only failure points at the reversing valve or its control rather than at the compressor.
Frost in cold damp weather is expected and the defrost cycle should clear it. Ice that builds into a block means defrost has quit, and running it that way is hard on the compressor.
Starting and stopping repeatedly in mild weather is a system fighting its own controls, or one oversized for the house. Either way it wears the compressor and never settles the humidity.
Backup heat energised at 55 degrees outside is not the system protecting you, it is the system being told wrong. It is one of the most expensive faults you can have and the house still feels fine.
The reversing valve shifting is audible on every heat pump and a soft thunk is normal. A hard bang, or a change of mode that does not complete, is the valve or its solenoid.
That is a defrost cycle, and it is normal — the system briefly runs in cooling to melt the outdoor coil. If it happens constantly, or the house loses ground doing it, the cycle is misbehaving.
Cannot be combined with any other offer. One per household.
Heat Pump Not Heating?
How a Heat Pump Visit Actually Goes
No mystery, no pressure, and no work done before you’ve agreed to it.
01We work out which side is failing
Heating, cooling, or the changeover between them. On a heat pump those are three different faults on one machine, and the fix is completely different for each.
02We check what the strips are doing
When they engage, how much current they draw, and whether they have any business being on at all. This is the single most common thing nobody looks at.
03We watch a full defrost cycle
Not just that the unit runs — that it frosts, defrosts and returns to heating the way it should. You cannot diagnose a defrost board without letting it try.
04You get the numbers and the price first
Temperature rise in heat, split in cooling, amp draw on the strips. Then the failed part and what it costs, before any work happens.
Heat Pump Maintenance Before the First Cold Night
Your Heat Pump Has Not Heated Since Spring
What actually goes wrong sitting idle
It has been cooling all summer, so the machine is not idle — but the heating half of it is, and none of this announces itself in August.
A reversing valve stuck in coolingThe unit runs happily and blows cold, which is the one you notice at 2am.
A defrost board that quitShows up as a block of ice on the outdoor unit, not as an error message.
A heat strip that failed openIt reads fine until it is asked to carry the house, and then it simply is not there.
A sequencer that will not closeThe call for heat arrives and nothing downstream of it wakes up.
Jacksonville’s average overnight low falls from 74 degrees in September to 56 in November. NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals.
Heat pumps are the most misunderstood equipment we work on, and that makes them easy to sell against. Air that is warm rather than hot, an outdoor unit that frosts, a cycle that briefly blows cool — all normal, all routinely presented to homeowners as faults. If yours is behaving the way a heat pump is supposed to behave, we will tell you that and leave.
What you might hear
“Heat pumps do not work in cold weather.”They work fine in Jacksonville cold. That claim belongs to a different climate and much older equipment.
“That frost means it is failing.”Frost in damp cold is expected. Whether it clears is the question worth asking.
“You should switch to a gas furnace.”A big sell in a city where the heating season is a few weeks long. Ask what the payback actually looks like.
What we’ll tell you
“That is normal for a heat pump.”The most common thing we say on these calls, and it ends the visit.
“Here is what the strips are costing you.”Measured, not estimated — and sometimes that is the whole problem.
“This is the valve, not the compressor.”A very different repair, and a very different number.
A heat pump and its backup strips are both controlled by the thermostat — which means the thermostat, not the equipment, decides how often you pay resistance rates.
AUX HEAT is normal
It means the strips are helping the heat pump on a cold morning. Seeing it is not a fault, and it should go away as the day warms up.
EM HEAT is not
Emergency heat shuts the heat pump off completely and runs on strips alone. It is meant for a broken heat pump, not a cold night — and left on, it is the most expensive setting in your house.
A deep setback backfires
On a furnace, turning it down overnight saves money. On a heat pump, recovering several degrees quickly is more than it can do alone, so the strips finish the job. A steady setting usually costs less.
Whatever you’re running
Condensers, Mini‑Splits, Heat Pumps — We Work On All of It
Straight-cool split systems, ductless mini‑splits, heat pumps, package units. If it cools a Jacksonville home, we’ve had our hands inside one.
A working air conditioner is comfort. A system looked after properly is something closer to peace of mind — especially in a Jacksonville August, and especially with small people in the house.
Vetted people in your home
Florida state certified — licence CAC036942 — fully insured, and BBB accredited at an A+ rating. The same small crew every time, not a rotating list of subcontractors.
The air they breathe all day
Florida humidity does not just make a house uncomfortable — it feeds what grows in it. Filtration, purification and humidity control keep the air in your rooms clean as well as cold.
Fixed right the first time
We show you the failed part, quote the whole number before we start, then test the system and clean up behind us. Our work is guaranteed — that is the whole point of the name on the truck.
Free estimate, honest answer.Tell us what your system is doing and we’ll tell you what it actually needs.
Paul came out and replaced our blower motor and saved the day. He fielded my call on Sunday evening, then did the service Monday afternoon. Friendly, efficient, and professional.
After years of feeling vulnerable to dishonest HVAC companies, a neighbor put me in touch. He quickly earned my trust — quick to return calls, reasonable rates, and he’s never tried to sell me things I don’t need.
We’ve used him for everything from small tweaks to replacing our entire unit. Quick, reliable, honest, and clean — and he beat the prices of every competitor. Yes, we priced out seven.
Fast and efficient, unbelievably affordable pricing. He quickly figures out the problem and explains it in a way anyone can understand. You automatically feel like you can trust him.
Our A/C went down and the team showed up Monday morning first thing. We had cool air flowing in no time. The crew was fast, clean, and finished under time.
Mike and the team were very professional, friendly, and knowledgeable. The price was not unreasonable. So happy we found this company — we know we will be taken care of in the years to come.
Just had Great Dane install a new A/C in my home. Mike came to my home, saw what I had, and I told him what I wanted installed. There was absolutely no sales pressure.
Mike came out and gave an estimate with no fluff, which is what I like. He was honest and professional. The team that installed the unit worked well together and the work performed was stellar!
My experience was beyond my expectations. They did an amazing job replacing my antique air conditioner! Mike gave me a great quote and DJ and his son completed this challenging job amazingly well.
Our outdated A/C system went down for good and I had called multiple other companies with little to no response. I called Great Dane and Mike was at my house in less than 15 minutes.
So glad I went with Great Dane to service my a/c. I highly recommend Quentin, who serviced the unit. He is extremely knowledgeable, highly competent, and up front about potential issues.
I’d been without A/C for quite some time. It was amazing — the care and concern that Mike (and MJ & Brandon) had about my situation. I know I chose the right company.
Straight answers, no jargon — including the ones that cost us money to answer honestly.
Is a heat pump just an air conditioner?+
Almost exactly. It is the same refrigeration circuit with a reversing valve that lets it run in either direction. In cooling it takes heat out of your house and dumps it outside; in heating it does the reverse, taking heat out of the outdoor air and bringing it in. In summer there is genuinely no difference in how it behaves.
Why is the air warm instead of hot?+
Because nothing is being burned. A furnace makes heat and delivers air that is genuinely hot; a heat pump moves heat and delivers air that is warm but noticeably cooler than a furnace’s. That is how the equipment works, not a fault, and it is the single most common reason people think their heat pump is broken.
Do heat pumps actually work in cold weather?+
In Jacksonville, yes. The old reputation comes from a different climate and much older equipment. What is true is that below a certain outdoor temperature the heat pump cannot carry the whole load on its own and the electric strips help out — and that handoff is what shows up on a January bill.
Why did my power bill jump in January?+
Almost always the strips. When it gets cold enough that the heat pump cannot keep up alone, electric resistance backup heat switches on, and resistance heating gives you exactly one unit of heat per unit of electricity — no more. Nothing is broken when that happens on a genuinely cold night. What is worth checking is whether they are coming on when they should not be, because that is a real fault with a real cost.
Is there anything I can do about the strips?+
Some of it is just the weather. But strips energised on a mild day, a thermostat set up wrong, or a heat pump that is underperforming and forcing the backup to carry more than its share are all fixable — and none of them announce themselves, because the house still feels warm. That is what we measure on the visit.
My outdoor unit is covered in frost. Is that bad?+
Not by itself. Pulling heat out of cold damp air drops the outdoor coil below freezing and moisture condenses onto it — that is physics, and every heat pump does it. The system runs a defrost cycle to melt it off, which is why you sometimes get a few minutes of cool air and steam off the outdoor unit in winter. Ice that never clears, or that builds into a solid block, is the fault worth calling about.
Why does it blow cool air for a minute in winter?+
That is the defrost cycle. To melt frost off the outdoor coil the system briefly runs in cooling mode, which means the indoor air goes cool for a few minutes. Most systems bring the strips on during it so you do not feel it much. It is normal, it is short, and it is not the system failing.
One call covers the rest of the house.This page is one job. These are the others.
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