TL;DR
An auxiliary heat strip is the electric resistance element kit mounted in a heat pump's air handler that provides backup and defrost-cycle heat, sold in sizes from 5 to 25 kW and field-installed with its own breakers. Sizing follows the Manual J heating load and local design temperature, not a bigger-is-better instinct, since each 5 kW draws about 21 amps at 240 volts and can dominate winter bills.
What it means
An auxiliary heat strip is the electric resistance element kit mounted in a heat pump's air handler that provides backup and defrost-cycle heat, sold in sizes from 5 to 25 kW and field-installed with its own breakers. Sizing follows the Manual J heating load and local design temperature, not a bigger-is-better instinct, since each 5 kW draws about 21 amps at 240 volts and can dominate winter bills. The kit includes its own overcurrent protection and often staged contactors so only part of the bank energizes at once. Electrical service capacity sometimes limits what can be installed without a panel upgrade.
Where it sits in the glossary
Auxiliary heat strip is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
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