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A heat pump working a Sullivan County winter is running at the edge of its rated capacity for months at a stretch, because it has to extract heat from outdoor air that is often well below the temperatures where a heat pump works most efficiently. Homes in Sullivan County, NH run heat about nine months a year, from September through May. The reversing valve, the refrigerant circuit, and the defrost controls cycle repeatedly through that cold stretch, and those are the components a contractor examines first when a system starts losing output or throwing faults. Undersized equipment shows the strain sooner than a properly sized unit, because it runs longer to meet the same load and never fully catches up.
Ducting and wiring in a lot of Sullivan County houses were not put in for the equipment that runs in them now. Half the homes in Sullivan County, New Hampshire were built in 1974 or earlier (2020-2024 ACS 5-year). By the time a heat pump goes into a house like that, the refrigerant lines and electrical connections have often been adapted, spliced, or rerouted at least once. When a contractor opens a unit to diagnose a fault, what they find inside is one question. What feeds and surrounds that unit is another, and in stock this old the two questions rarely have the same answer.
The Parts of a Heat Pump a Contractor Checks First
The outdoor unit sits on a pad beside the house and holds the compressor, which is where most repair calls begin. When that unit is the problem, the compressor or the refrigerant lines running out of it are usually what the contractor is looking at. The air handler lives inside, most often in a utility closet or basement, and it is the piece that moves conditioned air through the home.
The refrigerant lines connect the two units and carry the working fluid between them. A reversing valve inside the system switches the direction of that flow depending on the season, and a failing valve is a common reason a heat pump stops heating or cooling on one side. The thermostat rounds out the picture, and a contractor checks it early because a wiring or calibration fault there can mimic a much larger problem.
The drawing shows the general layout of these components, and a licensed contractor determines what applies to your particular house and system.
Get matched in Sullivan CountySullivan County, NH, by the numbers
111 severe weather events were recorded in Sullivan County, New Hampshire between 2015 and 2024.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, bulk CSV export, events 2015-01-01 through 2024-12-31.Half the homes in Sullivan County, New Hampshire were built in 1974 or earlier (2020-2024 ACS 5-year).
U.S. Census Bureau, 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesSullivan County, New Hampshire holds 21,958 housing units (2020-2024 ACS 5-year).
U.S. Census Bureau, 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesOwners occupy 75.4% of the occupied homes in Sullivan County, New Hampshire (2020-2024 ACS 5-year).
U.S. Census Bureau, 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesCodes & Standards for Heat Pump Repair in Sullivan County, New Hampshire2 sourced rules & standards
Licensing Rules for HVAC Repair in Sullivan County, New Hampshire
New Hampshire's mechanical licensing board issues nine credentials — hearth system, four fuel gas endorsements, domestic appliance technician, and master, journeyman and apprentice plumber — and a licensee may not work outside the specialty their licence names. None of the nine is an HVAC licence.
New Hampshire does not license HVAC as a trade, and says so where it matters: the plumbing licence expressly does not reach a person installing heating, cooling, air conditioning or domestic water heating systems, whether solar, oil, gas or electric. The gas piping on a gas-fired system is a separate matter and needs a fuel gas fitter licence.
Severe Weather Events in Sullivan County
Extreme weather puts heat pumps under load when conditions are already at their worst. How hard that pressure runs in Sullivan County shapes what repair needs look like here and how often equipment gets pushed to its limits.
111 severe weather events, 2015–2024. Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database.