Heat Pump Not Performing up to par...

has this tstat worked the heat pump before? possible refrigerant issues

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WHAT??? Removing heat strips does not make an air handler. Air handlers have heat strips, please explain

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Some heat pumps have high and low pressure swiches installed to keep compressor from running when unsafe conditions occur that can damage the compressor. If the outside fan is not turing on, the unit is cycling on high pressure, if you see ice forming on the big refrigerant line coming from the air handler, then the compressor is shutting down on low pressure. Low pressure can be cause by lack of air flow through air handler or from a low refrigerant charge.

Check your reversing valve, When you set your thermostat for heat the reversing valve circulates the heated freon through the air handler instead of the cooled freon. The valve is called many things but it reverses the flow of freon See http://www.google.com/images?hl=&q=heat+pump+schematic&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS329US330&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=npcOTfLEPMO88ga4poDGBQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=2&ved=0CC4QsAQwAQ&biw=1024&bih=576 and look at the different schematics

some times heat pumps have a fan cycling switch to keep the head pressure normal in cool weather or check the defrost relay for the fan when a heat pump condenser gets frosted it will stop the fan and reverse into cooling mode for a few min. to melt the ice and this function is done by a relay or a printed circuit board if it goes bad you wont have voltage to the fan

Check the voltage at the contactor where the 24 vac connects to the coil for the contactor so you can see if it is making it that far. It will be 2 smaller wires that are not connected to the 240 vac. Let me know if you have 24 vac there. The thermostat will have to be calling for air for the 24 vac to be present. let me know what you find.

In general terms an electric unit uses a 20 x 20 x 1 filter and a gas system uses a 20 x 25 x 1 filter. If the return filter is somewhere other than at the unit, it will very greatly in size. Its the descretion of the installer as to what size filter they choose to install.

I am assuming this is a heat pump? (Typical when the t-stat has a green light.).

Please confirm

If a heat pump, is the outdoor unit frozen up? There can be some frosting, but it should not be a block of ice.

If there is an emergency heat switch on the t-stat, can you flip that to emergency heat? Do you get heat then?

Pleas advise and I can help you troubleshoot this problem further.

You may have a problem with a temperature safety system.  Before changing anything else, check to see if the unit is clean!!!  Dirt/dust can fool the safety system into an overtemperature status.  Inspect the heat coils for damage and dirt.  Gently clean.  

On your t-stat you have Y, W1, W2, R, O, G, B or C or X. Y is your cooling circuit and will be the same in the air handler and heat pump unit, use the yellow wire for this circuit. W1 and W2 are your back up elec. or gas heat. Depending on how many kws or heat strips you have and t-stat wires you will put the white wire to W1 in both the t-stat and air handler. W2 is for your second stage back up heat if air handler calls for it, this will be a tan or brown or black t-stat wire and goes to W2 on t-stat and air handler. R is half of your 24v control power from the transformer and is the red wire and goes to the t-stat, air handler, and heat pump. O is for the reversing valve in the heat pump that switches it from heating and cooling. You guessed it the orange wire connect to t-stat and heat pump. G is for the blower and is the green wire to the t-stat and air handler. B or C or X is known as the common which is the other half of control circuit from 24v transform it is the blue wire and goes to the t-stat, air handler, and heat pump.