I wanted to give another update... Well as soon as the cold snap hit here my electric bill doubled... Turns out the thermostat is very impatient. What I mean is it will kick on the aux heat during the "recovery" period. The recovery period is the time when my thermostat changes from "Away" to "Return" and start to heat up the house.
Well for $24 I bought a temp sensor to mount outside so I can set lockouts. The sensor is a "
Honeywell C7089U1006 Outdoor Temperature Sensor" So far so good. I was able to set the heat pump lockout at 30* F so it won't kick on below that threshold. I set the aux heat lockout for 35*F so the aux heat won't kick on unless below 35*. This way I'm hoping the heat pump will be used for recovery instead of the resistive elements the furnace has.
A little more info on my system... The heat pump is a 12 year old 10 seer Rheem unit. Last measurement comparing return to register was +18*F. The aux heat is four 30 amp resistive heat banks which will set your hair on fire given the chance... I also have a Rheem whole house humidifier attached to the furnace.
I'll update as soon as I have a few weeks of data. Hopefully I can save some monies while squeezing some more use out of HVAC relics I currently own.