a lot depends on what temperature you feel comfortable with inside and the difference between that and the outdoor temperature (variance). The wider the variance the longer the heat pump runs and will at some predetermined variance kick in the heat strips.
The other all important factor is what is the outdoor temperature around the heat pump. They work best at 35 degrees and above. The colder the air the less heat there is in it for the heat pump to extract.
In temperatures below 35 expect that your heat pump will run just about full time.
If you are lucky the heat pump is in the view of the rising sun!
Now that the temps are going to be in a hard freeze for several hours we will find out which of our tropicals will not survive. After 11 years we have just about lost all our tropicals, learning to replace them with more cold hardy local plants.
Covering plants is good for frost protection. For freezing not as good. If it is 20 degrees above the cover it is 20 degrees under the cover.
We have the advantage that here in FL does it ever stay at these low low numbers for very long. We get it for a few hours. The folks back home are counting days below zero!!!!!!
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