Heat pump repair in Orlean.

Orlean isn’t a street, it’s a stretch of farmland. The Census block group around the village covers about 26 square miles and counts 543 occupied homes, every one a house or farmhouse. Electric heat, heat pumps among it, warms 306 of them, which is better than half, with propane next. A repair call here often starts with a driveway and a gate before it gets to a unit.

Out on a working property, it is common to find more than one pump: the main house, plus a second for a workshop, an in-law suite, a converted barn or a guest cottage. Each has its own thermostat, breaker and often its own age. Tell us which building is cold. A call that says “the heat pump” on a property with three of them costs a trip to sort out.

The last week of January 2026 is the week to remember. Extreme Cold Warnings went out, the station at Hume four miles northwest logged a wind chill of 8 below, and the gauge near Marshall still showed six inches of snow on the ground on January 30 and 31. In that stretch a pump runs defrost constantly and the strips run behind it. A unit buried in drift can’t breathe, so clear snow from around it, not off the top, and leave the coil alone.

Inside the village, along Leeds Manor Road, the historic houses run back to the 1700s and 1800s, many with stone walls and low basements. A heat pump added there usually has its air handler in an odd corner and a long line set to the outdoor unit. Those long runs lose capacity if they’re kinked or under-insulated, and the pump looks weak when the pipe is the problem.