Oddly enough, my meter isn't showing any amperage. I have it set in circuit with the terminal, like it's supposed to be with this meter, but it's only showing 0. That being said, there is a marked difference between when the strips are running vs. the pump as far as the amount of heat. With the heat pump, it heats the house, but the air coming from the vents feels like room temperature. Whereas when the emergency heat is on, the air is hot. If I turn the unit off and then back on, you can feel the hot air from the ducts, but it only lasts about 5 minutes, then blows cold. With the warmer air outside that we had today, I can slowly heat the house up using the pump, but can only turn it up a degree or two before it starts trying to use auxiliary heat, then just blows cold. So, I can set it to one degree over the temp of the house, then when it warms up to that, one degree more, and so on. Once it tries to turn the auxiliary heat on, it just blows cold air unless I turn it off and back on, then again heat for about 5 minutes. If it dips below around 40 degrees outside, then of course the heat pump cannot keep up, ,so it automatically tries auxiliary heat again, and everything just starts over.
Sorry for the long post, I hope it makes some sort of sense. If I can find my other meter, I'll try to check the amperage again with it, but it seems like the heat pump is working since it does (slowly) heat up the house as long as the auxiliary heat doesn't try to turn on.