Turned on heat pump last week and smoke started to come out of the vents?

If the heat strips kicked on it could be anything sitting on top of them as well.

You should be able to open up the inside unit and see the coils/strips to see if there is anything major.

Doubt it can get hot enough to ignite anything in the plenum or ductwork.

It was the vent on the other side of the stove so don't think it was grease or anything from cooking related. It did seem to be that one vent that the vast majority of the smoke was coming from but also I think that vent is the closets 'to the outside unit. First in line so to speak.

I could smell a burnt smell coming from inside the unit through the fan on top as well. It is a propane heating unit by the way. I was hoping it could be a rats nest or something minor like that. Thanks for the help!

I guess they can have aux heat but in a residential setting I wouldn't think so. A heat pump just reverses the flow of refrigerant to produce heat at the evap coil instead of expelling heat through condenser coil. Could just be dust/growth build up on your evap coil getting burned off? If its still not smoking from the initial turn on then your probably good.

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Do Heat Pumps normally have an aux heat strip? I never messed with them much. If so, that could be it.

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Mine do. Emergency Heat could how it would be listed.

Not sure the normal delta setting for emergency heat is, but if it was 72 in the house and you kicked the setpoint up to 80 then you likely triggered the emergency heat to come on. Usually if the temp drifts more than 3-5 degrees or so from the setpoint the emergency heat will kick on to help out.

If you installed a smart thermostat there is a good chance you don't have enough delta for your temps and it kicked the heat strips on. Mine was set from the factory at 1 degree or so.

If you haven't used your strips in years you could have inadvertently kicked them on by making the setpoint so much higher than the actual temp.

When we almost froze to death in TX earlier this year I think this smoke thing happened to me too (or I read about it researching my system during the freeze). Either way, I recall it not being cause for alarm and related to aux heat strips.

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All heat pumps have emergency heat strips.

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Not true, my emergency back up is a natural gas furnace.

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vast majority of the smoke was coming from but also I think that vent is the closets 'to the outside unit.

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Outside unit would not cause this. All air that is blown in your house comes strictly from your inside unit

I would say its unusual as well.

Most of the time you would see a heat pump system in conjunction with aux heat/emergency heat supplied by the electric strips.

Otherwise if you're in an environment that gets cold enough for long enough it would be better to have a separate furnace system for heat and standard a/c.

While I guess it could be more cost effective(in terms of daily energy use) as you elude to run a heat pump system until it's cold enough to need a furnace system, I'd have to imagine the initial costs of having a ac/heat pump + furnace system as well as maintenance or need to replace sooner due to usage patterns might outweigh the cost savings.

I had a friend who is a propane come out yesterday and look at the unit and he said that he thinks either the internal fan motor burned out and/or the circuit board inside the unit. The burners worked fine just no heat coming into the house so it has to be some sort deal with the fan. He said he had no idea how much a fan would cost these days though. Tomorrow I have a HVAC guy coming out that he recommended so hopefully we will get to the bottom of it.

Thanks for the help and replies!