Thermostat settings
Ecobee heat pump settings, calculated for your home
Ecobee calls the heat pump lockout "Compressor Min Outdoor Temperature" and the aux/furnace lockout "Aux Heat Max Outdoor Temperature". Here is exactly where to find them, what they accept, and how to set them from your heatpump.blue result.
Where to find it
On the thermostat itself (not the app): Main Menu → Settings → Installation Settings → Thresholds (some models show General before Settings). To set the outdoor thresholds by hand, set Configure Staging to Manually — in Automatic staging, ecobee's Aux Savings Optimization chooses for you.
Smart Thermostat Premium, Enhanced, Essential, ecobee3 lite
| Setting | What it does | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Compressor Min Outdoor Temperature | Compressor (heat pump) lockout: below this outdoor temperature the heat pump stops and your furnace or other heat does everything. | Disabled, or 0–65 °F. Factory default 35 °F for air-source heat pumps. |
| Aux Heat Max Outdoor Temperature | Aux/furnace lockout: above this outdoor temperature, your furnace or other heat is not allowed to run. | 0–80 °F in 0.5 °F steps. Factory default 70 °F. |
| Compressor to Aux Temperature Delta | An indoor-shortfall trigger for aux heat, not an outdoor temperature. | Auto, Disabled, or 1–10 °F. |
| Aux Heat Simultaneous Operation | Whether the heat pump and aux heat may run at the same time. | Must be Disabled for dual fuel (heat pump + gas or oil furnace), per ecobee. |
How your heatpump.blue result maps onto this
heatpump.blue finds the outdoor temperature below which your furnace or other heat costs less than running the heat pump, for your weather, your model and your rates. On Ecobee, that number goes into the setting below.
- Dual fuel (heat pump + furnace): set Compressor Min Outdoor Temperature to your heatpump.blue recommendation, and Aux Heat Max Outdoor Temperature at or above it so the furnace can still help if the heat pump cannot keep up.
- Heat pump + electric strips: your result usually says not to lock out the compressor (strips rarely beat a heat pump on cost), so set Compressor Min Outdoor Temperature to Disabled and set Aux Heat Max Outdoor Temperature a few degrees above the temperature where your heat pump stops keeping up with your home.
- "Never lock out" result: set Compressor Min Outdoor Temperature to Disabled.
Get your Ecobee number
Enter your ZIP, your heat pump model and your rates, and get the lockout temperature that costs you least, with the range it is sensitive to.
Common mistakes
- Leaving Aux Heat Simultaneous Operation enabled on a dual-fuel (furnace) system — ecobee says this must be Disabled.
- Leaving Configure Staging on Automatic and expecting the two threshold fields to take effect — they only apply once staging is set to Manually.
- Setting the aux/furnace lockout below the compressor lockout. That leaves a band of outdoor temperatures where nothing is allowed to run. Keep the aux/furnace lockout at or above the compressor lockout.
- Changing the setting without writing down the factory default first. These are installer menus; changing them is safe, but you may want to undo it.
- Assuming the factory default is the cheapest setting for your home. It is a generic default, not calculated for your climate, your model or your energy rates.
- Forgetting the setting needs an outdoor temperature source (a wired sensor, a communicating outdoor unit, or internet weather) to do anything at all.
Questions
- What should ecobee Compressor Min Outdoor Temperature be set to?
- On a dual-fuel system, your heatpump.blue result for your home — the outdoor temperature below which running the furnace costs less than running the heat pump. On a heat pump with electric strip backup, most homes are cheapest with it set to Disabled, since a heat pump almost always beats resistance strips on cost.
- What should Aux Heat Max Outdoor Temperature be set to?
- At or above your Compressor Min Outdoor Temperature. On strip backup, a few degrees above the temperature where your heat pump stops keeping up with your home (your result's comfort figure), so strips only help when the heat pump genuinely cannot.
- Does ecobee work with a dual-fuel heat pump?
- Yes. Set Aux Heat Type to Gas/Oil and turn Aux Heat Simultaneous Operation off, so the thermostat treats the furnace as a true alternate heat source rather than a supplement.
Sources
Checked against the manufacturer’s own documents on 2026-10-08. Firmware and documents change; your model’s current installer manual wins over this page.