The oil furnace is the auxiliary heat at Mist Cottage, and it wasn’t kicking in when it needed to.
The first thing we thought of was the thermostat, but it seemed to be working as expected.
When the temperature drops 2C below the target temperature, the oil furnace is supposed to come on to bring the interior temperature up to the target. This doesn’t happen very often when the heat pump is heating the house, as it kicks in if the temperature falls by 1C. It is only when the weather throws a quick and extreme temperature drop at us that this whole sequence comes into play.
Attila had some ideas, and started with the simplest, checking all the wiring that was visible. Sure enough, one of the connectors was dislodged! He secured the connector, turned the heat up to 27C (from 21.5C) and bingo, the furnace instantly began to do what it is supposed to do! I turned the thermostat back down as soon as it was a sure thing that everything was working as it should.
Relief!!
This morning Attila looked very stern minutes after he got out of bed. He was pondering and worrying over the furnace issue, as well he might. That worry has now been allayed.
At some point our oil furnace will need to be replaced, but we are in no hurry to do so. When and if the oil furnace fails, the new furnace will be a natural gas furnace, and when the natural gas supply is connected the electric hot water tank will be replaced with an on-demand hot water heater. If we are lucky, this won’t ever be necessary. Dollars to donuts though, at some point the heating system will need updating, even if it is only because the insurance companies refuse to cover a perfectly good oil furnace and tank. Time to open a savings account for a new heating system, start now and hope for the best.
Worldly
Weather
5°C
Date: 4:00 PM EDT Saturday 3 November 2018
Condition: Light Rainshower
Pressure: 101.3 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 4.8°C
Dew point: 1.7°C
Humidity: 80%
Wind: W 36 gust 46 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art.”
Izaak Walton
1593 – 1683
Wow! You got another thing fixed! Great news! We too are watching our air conditioning unit. The big boxes that are so necessary here in the desert only last so many years. There’s not a whole lot of years left on it. Planning ahead is definitely a good thing. …..Joan
Joan, I feel very lucky! Yes, the air conditioning where you live would be just as crucial as the heating system where I live. I hope your unit has a lot of good years left in it, replacement is just one of those things you have to factor into home ownership. I like DIY, but air conditioners and furnaces are a bit beyond my plausible skill set.
Glad to hear it was an easy fix. You don’t need one thing on top of another.
Our furnace is supposed to be replaced tomorrow. Only problem is, after DH removed part of a wall and carried out the drywall, now we have a mouse downstairs! Even better, the repair man/men are supposed to be going in and out of that downstairs door all day tomorrow, so no telling how many mice we might end up with.
We have a few traps down there now. I hope the mouse decides to stay downstairs because it would have to get past 2 dogs to be up here with us.
Yay the furnace is getting replaced tomorrow. Boo to mice!
I love my 5 gallon bucket mouse traps. We have one setup on the back porch and catch a mouse every few days. If we catch them out there, they are less likely to get in here! The bucket trap in the garage isn’t catching any right now, only on the back porch.
You could put a bucket trap out by the door the repair people will be using tomorrow, see if you can catch any of the little monsters outside, before they get in. I’ll outline the method just in case you want to try it. I used a 5 gallon plastic bucket, but you could use an ordinary pail. Fill half full of water. Smear peanut butter in a thin 2 inch long line just above the water line. Put a ramp to the lip of the bucket/pail just above the peanut butter (sometimes I just use a stick, they can walk up almost anything. This catches mice at night, not during the day as a rule. The thing about this trap is that if the mouse drowns, it is much eaiser to deal with than if it is crushed in some way. Anyway I hope you get your mouse one way or another! Usually when there is one, there are more, so the traps are great idea!
Maggie, thanks for the detailed description of your mouse trap. I read it to DH. If we have problems catching the little guy he will give it a try. DH seems to be trying to convince himself that since he hasn’t seen anything more that the little guy went back out. I seriously doubt that.
Well, new furnace is in and running. There’s a very acrid smell coming from it, so we have the front windows cracked open.
I sincerely hope that DH is right! They like to come in this time of year, seeking shelter for the cold weather. We caught another one on the back porch last night. It won’t be long though, before our bucket traps will freeze and then we will move it indoors, and put some traps outside.
Glad to hear the new furnace is in! Yuck about the smell though, I hope it is very temporary!
Yay! We caught the mouse!
Teri, excellent!
Woot! And we got the bill for the previous service calls, today. We were around $800 for the times they tried to fix the furnace and failed. They charged us only the labor on the first service call: $129.95!
I was really worried about that.
Wow Teri! That is great! There are decent companies around, always wonderful when we run into them.