We had a unit with a heat strip and it worked just fine for what it did, take the chill off. We had our unit for 7 years and never had any problem with our compressor from running the heat strip and it always our first chojce when the temps dipped. We now have heat pumps and they work great. We have 2 units and both are also heat pumps. When our furnace quit working, we were able to stay warm using the bedroom heat pump. We have not filled a propane tank since February and that includes time exercising the LP generator. So the heat pumps do help to minimize propane usage.