First of all, it would be helpful to know exactly what you have as far as HVAC, outdoor condenser and inside air handler; brand, model, size, age and include the size of your backup heat strip. It’s always preferable to have a complete matching system, not a fairly new outside condenser with an unmatched older inside air handler. BTW, what size is your home? Heating elements In HP systems are sized by KW. Each KW yields around 3500 BTUs. When was the last time your HVAC was checked out by a pro? Not certain about your NC location but we have had a relatively mild winter heating season. I assume you have eliminated the possibility of another device/appliance pulling excessive electric usage.

IMO

Is this an electric furnace?

Probably electric furnace with strip heat.

Electric strip heat is one of the more expensive ways to heat a home. This isn't a DIY project.

OP refers to a HP system. If he has just a outside AC condenser paired with an inside air handler and electric heat strip, then not much he can do without equipment upgrade.

TD

skin, I think you are right. I bought a cheap infrared heater for my bedroom and flipped the whole system off (to top it off it has one of those crappy 80s mastertrol zone systems with the gold dial) used 10kwH/day, turned it back on yesterday thermostat on 64, granted it was very cold here yesterday, in the 30s, I used 130KwH!!!!

The mastertrol panel is going, I have ordered a honeywell hz311 to replace it bc the thing is just pure nonsense and confusing. When I rewire that I am going to open the air handler and make sure all of the connections coming out (and going to the zone panel/thermostats) are right. Maybe I will luck out and they just screwed up and put a wire on an auxiliary heat resistor that should be on regular heat... Or maybe this confusing piece of crap from 1981 is messed up and it is calling for auxiliary heat when it should be calling for regular heat...

My question is. If I am indeed constantly using the strip heat, what is missing for the "normal" heat pump heat? As I mentioned I know very little about these systems, don't they run the outside compressor in reverse for heating to pull the cold out or something? My 2017 compressor is capable of doing that, right? I mean I have all the equipment for this to work, it's just wired and slapped together piss poorly is what your'e saying? Or, am I missing some other component that they neglected to save money? If my rewiring of the zone controls and thermostats makes no difference, how expensive of a repair am I looking at to get the heat pump to actually pump heat?

Go outside and watch the heatpump condenser when you switch the heat on. The fan should turn and you should hear the compressor kick in. At our ambient temperatures right now, the auxiliary heat should not be turning on. If either of these don't kick in then your condenser isn't working and you are heating with the backup heat strips. Several things can cause your condenser not to work (low refrigerant, fuse/breaker tripped, etc).

The compressor doesn't directly run in reverse on a heat pump ... the flow of refrigerant is reversed via a valve such that the indoor coil gets warm and the outdoor/compressor coil gets cold .... opposite of what happens for air conditioning/cooling. Basically the heat pump is cooling the outdoors ... picking up heat from the outside air and moving it into the house.

Are you sure the system is a heat pump? Maybe it was originally a heat pump but the outdoor replacement done in 2017 is a cool-only air conditioner unit (if that can be retrofitted to the existing indoor part) so it no longer functions as a heat pump and you're using electric heat strips for heating.

What is the model number on the outdoor unit?

I probably know little more than you do about heat pumps, but I do know that posting stupid things works extremely well to bring experts out of the woodwork, so here's a nice tasty bit of bait.

By the very nature of a heat pump, they become less efficient the colder the outside temperatures are, until they basically stop working. To get around this issue, heat strips were added for supplemental heat when the heat pump can't keep up. The simple thermostats were set so that too great a difference between the temperature setpoint, and the room temperature turned on the supplemental heat. So what does this dumb system do when someone raises the setpoint? It turns on the supplemental heat because the temperature differential is too high. The first 'fix' for this was to just leave the thermostat alone to get the maximum energy saving from the system. The second 'fix' was smarter thermostats that increased the temperature in steps that were smaller than the differential needed to turn on the heat strips. A refinement on that was a thermostat that would start the steps early, so the house would be at the target temperature when the occupants woke up or arrived home, since without the heat strips, the temperature would rise fairly slowly.

For now, you could try leaving the thermostat alone, and see if the electric usage goes down once the heat pump is simply trying to maintain a given temperature.

All this is assuming that being a good little cheapskate, you are used to turning the heat down when you don't need it, and back up when you do.

My 2017 compressor is capable of doing that, right? I mean I have all the equipment for this to work, it's just wired and slapped together piss poorly is what your'e saying? Or, am I missing some other component that they neglected to save money? If my rewiring of the zone controls and thermostats makes no difference, how expensive of a repair am I looking at to get the heat pump to actually pump heat?

You said the AC was replaced in 2017 prior to you buying the home and that you know very little about these kinds of things.

An AC is not a heat pump nor is a heat pump an AC. If I were to install a heat pump, that is what I would call it. I would not call it an AC. Does this mean a heat pump can not cool? NO.

BUT an AC does not provide heat. It's an air conditioner (cooling only).

We have to work with facts and you haven't provided any.

Mod# Ser# of the outdoor condenser. Take first things first, we need to know what you have.

The outside unit is a Carrier CH14 nb048-a model number specifically. The manual to the unit which was left by the previous owners says it was installed in july 2017 and is entitled (ch14nb SPLIT-SYSTEM HEAT PUMP)

oh yeah serial number 1517x17660

Yep, definitely a heatpump:

https://resource.carrierenterprise.com/is/content/Watscocom/carrier_ch14nb03000g_article_1428408421033_en_ss

But it doesn't appear to be working correctly in heat mode. Honestly, it could be a number of things - you really need to get someone out to check it - you shouldn't have a $350 monthly bill with our current weather.

Yea. I’m gonna replace the current super old zone controller board a mastertrol mark xxxi with a honeywell z311 if that makes no difference gonna call in a professional to see what the issue is because that’s the limit of my DIY capabilities lol.