Sounds like he lets it drop way down overnight, based on his description, and was expecting the heat pump to be able to rapidly bring it back up to 72, which wasn't going to happen.
Correct but not sure of the word "rapidly" I was surprised to see the slow ramp up meaning if you look at my post after running for 5 minutes the intake measures 62 and out 70 and pretty much for the first close to hour air didnt seem that warm.
Exactly one hour later intake air temp was 68 and output 92 so knew we were on the right track at that point. Also the intake is 11 feet off the ground in the main living area 11 ft ceilings. So heat settles high up at first.
With that said, previous post our last home (16 year old home) 2nd floor heat pump unit had coils that would kick in if the spread was more than 2 or 3 degrees. I guess that is no more in the "green world" ? or is it simply a matter of thermostat programming which I suspect.
Anyway, my post was just to make sure someone in here with experience would confirm this as about right. The responses re-assure me as I look for every single thing and reason I can put in a warranty claim before our 1 year "bumper to bumper" no cost to fix or change anything we want on this house expires.
I do also know part of the start up time is the defrost cycle as it was 20 degrees in the morning and we are near the coast. (humidity) there was quite a bit of melted water on the condenser and still some sheets of ice on the coils. I checked my neighbors and his was the same.
So thinking it all through and the comments in here it sounds about right. No concerns, if there was even the slightest I would file a warranty service, whether a bit more freon etc.
We did have a home inspection done this week also, pretty much anything he find you hand off to the warranty dept to have them fix or correct. He said we were in better shape then most, actually seemed surprised. Worst thing he could find which he said to get corrected right away is the plumber didnt ground the propane system correctly. the wire is there I suspect he ran out of clamps *LOL* Lots of other little stuff, but no big things like broken trusses etc. He also ran the HVAC system while he was here, had temperature gauges on a couple vents.
I have to say for a production builder we have been very impressed with the smooth operation of the warranty dept. Pretty much, scan a QR code and with drop downs click on what needs service. Follow up call follows with video and that is usually it, sometimes our local warranty guy needs to check something. Not once have we been denied a claim, including tearing out and putting in a new driveway last summer. Anyway, in a few weeks they will do another walkthrough with us to see if we can find anything else wrong before warranty expires.
You can see ice on the coil. (ps that isnt rust, its mud, I went back out to check*LOL*)