Since the cold weather started a several weeks ago, the heater has gone out twice. The first time was the day after the ice storms. When WS got home the house was so cold that both of the thermostat thermometers were bottomed out. He hit the restart on the heater and it started right up. We figured that a power flicker had occurred just as the heater was trying to start up, which would cause it to just sit there mindlessly.
Yesterday morning, we woke up and it was 59 degrees in the basement (where we sleep). Just a tad cooler thatn the 68 we keep it at! It was -1 (at that time) and poor WS had to go out and remove the filter from the oil line so that the fuel could flow (this cannot be done with gloves on). I started a fire in the woodstove so that the heater could concentrate all it's heating power to the basement (the upstairs and downstairs are seperate zones). The upstairs was still warm from the fire the night before, so the woodstove was just maintenance.
At 7 AM, the outside temp, according to 2 thermometers, was -6, and the basement had actually dropped to 57 degrees. Forced hot water heat is really good and efficient, until something like this happens. The boiler will only heat up the water so hot before it shuts off, the water circulates until it cools off a certain amount, then the boiler does it's thing agian. I would think that a forced hot air unit would stay going until the temp is to the set point.
So, I did whatever I could to force the heater to run continuously (the basement receives a lot of heat just from the flames themselves), which meant running the hot water. I did the dishes, I took a shower (downstairs - adding that heat to the basement), washing the shower curtain.
By the time I left at 9:30 to take Shadow in for his 3,000 mile checkup (he is in great shape by the way), the basement was up to 62 degrees. By 11, when I got back from the vet, the outside temp was 0 and the basement was to 65 degrees.
65 degrees is the point where water lines along outside walls should be okay and not freeze, so I relaxed and started in on homework. The heater has been working fine since, although WS needs to put in a new filter (he picked one up yesterday after work).
This morning was supposed to be colder than yesterday morning, but it is only 0 right now. With only an hour or so left to cool down, I don't think it will reach much less than -1 or -2. The day is supposed to be a lot warmer - in the 20's; yesterday it got up to a whopping 6 or 7 degrees.
Hopefully the heater woes are gone for this season!
Youch. That is chilly. Hope it starts working without all that fiddling around. That would get old in a hurry.
Posted by: Wichi Dude | January 27, 2007 at 08:43 PM