...in auxilliary heat for my heat pump? Ever since we've lived here, in the winter, if it gets really cold or my heatpump goes into defrost mode the house gets really cold. Everyone I know with heat pumps says the heat strips will automatically kick in when this happens. Mine don't! I have always had to click thermostat over to aux./emergency heat myself to get house warm. Was my thermostat just never wired to do this? Its a really basic thermostat. Why doesn't my emergency heat never kick on automatically. It has always been like this since unit was new. Can I get it rewired to come on automatically when really cold or in defrost mode? Really tired of getting up at 3am because its 60 degrees in house to switch over to heat strips.Heat and cooling on unit works great. No problems there. I just have to manually click over to emergency heat when it gets really cold outside. Thought it just might not be wired to do it automatically. Bought the unit brand new and its always been like this.