Tuesday, March 3, 2009

No heat

I woke up around 5am to the smell of burning. I'm not sure what really woke me up, maybe the cat. The smell in the air reminded me of the fumes created when I use a heat gun to strip paint from the old wood trim. I listened for noises and heard nothing. I could tell the house was cold even from under the covers.

I got up, got dressed and checked the indoor HVAC unit in the basement. Sure enough, the fan was running at about half speed. The transformer I replaced last summer was buzzing a lot louder than normal. I switched the breakers off and built a fire in the basement heater.

A little research on google tells me I need to either replace the capacitor for the fan blower's motor or the transformer. I'm going to try both since I have to drive almost an hour to find the parts I need. Wish me luck.

It's 18 degrees. The sun is just beginning to peek through the trees out back. The high today should be a whopping 34 degrees. Tonight, we should see temps in the low teens. There's still snow on the ground from Sunday. And I'm out of firewood. Just great.

12:50pm - 27 degrees in the sun. 54 indoors. The heat is back on after replacing a $3.84 relay on the blower motor. I also replaced the transformer that has been buzzing since it was replaced last year. Apparently it's supposed to buzz as this one does too. The temperature is slowly rising.

Bought some seeds at Wal-Mart from their 20 cents rack. Mostly veggies.

6 comments:

Kris said...

Wow, glad you have some heat back. Old Man Winter is just toying with us this year. But at least your priorities were straight - you also brought back some more seeds! ;-)

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

Glad you got your heat back on. At least you were able to fix it yourself!

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

I'm pretty handy when it comes to things around the house. The last time the unit needed repairs, it was going to cost $170 just to come out and diagnose it. I replaced the transformer for $25. This time, the transformer was cheaper and the relay was easy to test and diagnose as the real problem.

And yes, seeds are very important. Even if I had to go to Wal-Mart. Okay, I went to buy fiberglass resin for the current project, but they didn't have any. I already had the seeds in my hand. I wasn't going to leave them there.

compost in my shoe said...

Now we know who to call for equipment malfunctions...great way to save money...hope the seeds germinate for you!

Anonymous said...

Tom - if you ever need help with hvac problems, i'm always here. I have 6 years of formal education in the field, with 24 years hands-on experience. Control transformers burn up from too much current load being placed on them. Typically, this is from a coil chattering in a contactor. Happy belated birthday.

EG

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

Thanks EG. I'll keep that in mind. :)

The first transformer had to be replaced when I installed a new thermostat and the wires were in the wrong location. There were two extra wires and I connected them thinking they would provide power to the digital thermostat upstairs. I was wrong.

So far, it's just been simple fixes and google has been a real help. Thanks again.