Oxford study proves heat pumps triumph over fossil fuels in the cold::Published Monday in the scientific journal Joule, the research found that heat pumps are two to three times more efficient than their oil and gas counterparts, specifically in temperatures ranging from 10 C to -20 C.
Mine has a defrost cycle but it doesn’t work very well. But then again, it’s use case is primarily AC - it only gets frigid temps in my area every couple years. EDIT: yes, downvote me for stating my own personal experience, asshats.
Honestly it sounds like your unit may need to be serviced.
A lot of people also don’t understand that a heat pump is still heating your home, even though the air it blows might be a bit lower than your body temperature, so it feels “cool.” When that happens people assume it has stopped working and switch to aux heat. This is one of the major reasons people insist that heat pumps don’t work in the cold, even though they still have plenty of capacity margin to heat the dwelling.
My old system was actually set up so that it would pulse the electric aux heater every few minutes or so to help prevent this “drafty” feeling, and to extend the time between defrost cycles.