No Heat – Heat

It is really winter now!

This morning I was puttering around and feeling kind of chilly. I ignored the feeling and carried on with my projects. But the feeling persisted, and then began to be more and more insistent on getting my attention. A quick look at the thermometer alerted me to the fact that the temperature in the house was plummeting. Neither the furnace, nor the heat pump, were able to get going. There was no heat.

With a wind chill factor of -22 outside, I was going to have to do something, and quickly. I realized that although we own several electric heaters, Attila had stored them somewhere, and I could not find them. So that option was not available. I dressed warmly and headed out to the side of the house to inspect the air source heat pump. I cleared the snow from it, quite a bit actually, we are experiencing snow squalls. I banged it on the side a bit, thinking maybe it would get going. No. Back into the house I went.

My next attempt was to turn the temperature up substantially on the thermostat, hoping that would inspire the system to leap into action. No.

My next attempt was to turn off the thermostat, and leave it for several minutes before turning it back on. Nothing. So back down to the basement I went to look for the electric heaters, they had to be down there somewhere! No luck finding them. But while I was down there rummaging through the piles of stuff, I heard a noise, and bingo, the furnace kicked in and began to run!

So I was in business, the house began to warm up, and after about a half an hour I could remove my toque and parka. I spent some time down in the basement and finally remembered where the electric heaters were stashed. I found them.

An electric heater won’t keep the house comfortable, but it will keep the pipes from freezing. I also need to know where the antifreeze is, so I can winterize the house if the power goes out. We have all that is needed here to survive a no heat situation, but I have to be able to find the materials needed if I am going to implement the plan.

With any luck the furnace will keep working for the rest of the winter!

Worldly

Weather

-15°C
Date: 9:00 AM EST Wednesday 30 January 2019
Condition: Light Snow
Pressure: 101.0 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: -15.0°C
Dew point: -17.7°C
Humidity: 80%
Wind: NW 12 km/h
Wind Chill: -22
Visibility: 16 km

Quote

“Good order is the foundation of all things.”
Edmund Burke
1729 – 1797


12 Comments
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Stubblejumpers Cafe

Oh dear! Power outages (more common than furnaces quitting, here) are what scare me, as we don’t have a woodstove at GGFarm. Fortunately Scott has a generator that he can fire up if the power goes out for too long.

The furnace at my sister’s didn’t work properly one night and the temperature in the house was 60F when I got out of bed. My nephew came over and flipped the breakers, even though they appeared normal, and that did the trick, thank goodness.

It makes one realize pretty quickly how much we rely on electricity!

Glad your problem was soon solved … but you must be wondering what happened, and concerned about it happening again and without the positive outcome. Good luck figuring it out and finding the fix!

Kate

Eileen B.

Horrible time for your furnace to decide to take a nap!! I was having problems with my furnace so had a part replaced and it was working fine and then one cold day the heat wouldn’t stay at what I had it set. Went online to check out the thermostat manual and found out that static electricity could screw up the thermostat. I reset it and voila…everything back to normal. So glad you were able to get your furnace working again, Maggie! Stay warm!

WendyNC

So glad to read that the furnace kicked on again. This cold is scary, even here where it’s not so bad by comparison.

Eileen, thanks for that tip about static electricity.

We have ventless gas logs here because I was determined to have a heat source if the power went out. They stink, but it’s better than being cold!

Teri

We’ve tended to find that once our furnace has a problem it can no longer be relied upon, it could fail again at any time. Hope you’re staying warm!

Teri

Holy smoke! There’s a guy who sure didn’t want more business or referrals! I would have been biting nails (the metal ones) on being treated like that!

I’m sorry to say that any warranty you might have on your furnace won’t be valid anymore. They all got bought up but the new owners only collect the debt, they don’t service the products.

Maybe searching the brand name and “service” might help?

WendyNC

Maggie, the propane gas logs stink because the propane stinks. On its own, it is propane is odorless and colorless, and a propane leak can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. The stink element is deliberately added as an alert if there is a leak. However, our supplier, with which I’m not too pleased, seems to add extra stink and we can often smell it when the regular propane furnace is running. There’s nothing wrong with our furnace–everybody around here has the problem.