Heat pump cold weather operation

Hello all,

Heavy snow has come to the Washington area and my heat pump is icing up heavily. My question; should I set the system to use the Aux electric heat exclusively for the duration of the storm or can I allow the compressor to continue running even though the coils are heavily iced up?

Thanks for any advice.

John in Herndon (VA)

I was told by an HVAC tech not to let the heat pump run when the coils are covered with ice or snow, as this causes the refrigerant pressure to run higher than normal (and of course it won't be very efficient under those circumstances, either.)