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So, the last two weeks the respiratory junk has slowly been overtaking me. The sum of it is, I have a bad cold on top of a dry hacking cough, and I'm pretty miserable.
As a result, my mate and I stayed inside yesterday, concentrating of making Christmas presents (quilts, decorative pillows, etc). She sews, I cut, and I do the machine embroidery. All day long I'd been smelling something hot but I just thought it was the steam iron, or the adhesive spray I use when doing embroidery.
It was the furnace. A fan motor terminal burned off the controller board about 10:30PM. No sweat, I'm an old A/C guy and an electronic tech. I fixed that but after I put it together the whole board failed. I'm guessing the heat from the terminal caused a relay to short out. But this time it took out not only the board but the transformer and thermostat. So now all I have is a burner box and a fan motor. I gave up at 3:30AM and dug out the two space heaters we own.
So now I'm waiting for an estimator to price a replacement. In Illinois it's hard to even buy a furnace without a contractor's license, so it's not worth trying to replace it on my own.
Some say there's a silver lining to every cloud. I guess I can find two right now: First, maybe I'll actually be able to benefit from the 30% tax credit available until the end of the year, and second, and probably more importantly, something like this sure has a tendency to put my gender issues in the background. Not much comfort however.
Did I mention it was in the negative digits today (fahrenheit, for those of you using other systems--you know who you are)? I am managing to keep the house above 55 though, could be worse I guess.
Shivering in Chicago,
Carla Ann
PS Got the estimate, figured out how to pay the piper, the installation crew arrives tomorrow morning. Hope the boss understands me not being there.
Comments
Sorry to hear your hotbox
Sorry to hear your hotbox died. Mine did that few years ago, fortunately nowhere near as bad as yours did. Mine just required a new (used) igniter, $50 bucks under the table to the serviceman and the service call charge. However, mine dieing like it did (in winter while I was at work...) convinced me to start looking for 'secondary' heaters. I went with kerosene (paraffin in the UK) because it didn't require electricity. The funny thing is that now the main furnace (fuel oil forced air) is mostly kept off and the kerosene heaters do the entire house heat thing. Nicer heat and cheaper. Much cheaper, now that our electricity rates are skyrocketing...
BTW, it was -28'C (-18.4'F for metrically challenged peeps) this morning when I got up and the people living in the next town over had no electricity due to a transmission line failure. Makes me even gladder I went with kerosene...
Some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue
I assume these parafin heaters vent to the outside and use ...
outside air for combustion, IE a dual or a coaxial vent/intake system? Kerosene wick portable heaters in the US -- once very popular in the south -- have been respocible for many deaths from carbon monoxide posioning and some fires too. These used room air and vented directly into a room. Any flame inside a house uses up O2 and gives off CO2 and must be carefully vented. If there is the wrong air/fuel mix or a malfunction in the burner you get CO, carbon monoxide, which is oderless and deadly. Catalytic heaters using Coleman fuel -- white gas -- or propane used to kill people in tents and ice fishing shacks if not properly vented too. As to hibachis or other BBQ grills or gas ovens misused as heaters, DON'T!
John in Wauwatosa where it was in the single digits F this morning and something like 23F for the high ... a good 12 degress F below normal.
John in Wauwatosa
Propane is pretty safe if it's burning blue
But don't use it or any other heater in a tent without a window open. If you are staying in a tent, your breath is full of moisture, and it will freeze to the inside surface of the tent, preventing the fabric from breathing. Eventually it's as if you're in a sealed box, and when the oxygen content gets low, the burner starts to burn improperly as you begin to suffocate. As John says, improper combustion leads to CO regardless of the fuel. Use of unvented combustion heat is a last resort in my book, except on an open air patio. Otherwise I'd be using my garage propane heaters inside instead of the wimpy electric space heaters.
Hugs,
Carla
Not to mention
A significant combustion product from burning kerosine/paraffin is water. If you are in a well draught-proofed room (you're trying to keep yourself warm, after all) then that water has nowhere to go but into the walls and furniture.
My father was a jobbing builder for many years, fixing problems for older folk over a large rural area. One of the problems he got asked to fix many times was damp in rooms, requiring replastering and then redecorating. The old folk would tell him, "I keep a paraffin heater going all the time to try and keep the room dry, it must be getting in somewhere!" and make him go climb about in the attic or on the roof looking for leaks. He could never convince them that it was the heater causing the problem in the first place...
Penny
Well, pretty much *any*
Well, pretty much *any* thing you burn produces significant amounts of water. That's because biomaterials are hydrocarbons with a smattering of oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur and a few other elements. Generally for the driest organic material you can find you produce in excess of twice as much steam as you produce other gasses (and ashes), and down at methane the amount is four times the amount of carbon dioxide. Materials like wood contain even more water because the cell contents are immersed in a water solution. Coal being the obvious exception, because the process producing it includes partial elimination of the hydrogen the biomaterials contained. Normally if you burn wood though, you have a chimney pipe to vent the wet air, and perhaps radiators whose heat is transferred there through oil or water pipes, keeping any wet air to the boiler room. (And if you don't have a chimney pipe while burning wood you soon discover why you should have it!)
Hi John, about my
Hi John, about my usage.
Yes, I use the unvented wick type kerosene heaters. This is my third year using them, and there have been no problems so far. Okay, about safety... I'm aware of the dangers of using open burning appliances 'inside'. The two major dangers are oxygen depletion and carbon monoxide production. As to the first, I live in an "old" house that is far from weather tight. Lots of drafts here! *grin* The house was built in 1946 and was originally heated via a wood furnace and a fireplace. (It could be that it was a coal fed furnace, but since there is no evidence of a coal chute... I'm betting on wood.) Anyhow, we usually keep a window cracked open in the utility room. Keeps the smell from the furballs litter box down as a side benefit.
Carbon Monoxide... scary stuff. Three things I do to guard against that problem. First, I have CO alarms on all floors, installed and maintained according to manufacturers instructions. Second, the heaters get regular maintenance to ensure they are operating correctly and burning properly. Third, I 'have a plan' for what to do if the CO monitor ever sounds an alert. Pretty simple plan, just 'hold your breath, open a window wide, stay at window and call for help', but that's what the alarm makers recommend.
BTW, CO is not one of the by-products of a flame spreader wick heater 'as long as' the flame is burning correctly. As you said, the problem comes with incorrect burning. The 'spreader' ensures that the flame is getting enough oxygen for complete combustion. The major danger comes when the flame is set too low, but modern heaters have limit controllers built in so wicks can't be turned down past the preset.
One more thing to mention. Indoor unvented kerosene heaters have been tested and certified safe by Underwriters lab. Underwriters' Laboratories (UL) Standard 647 is the industry standard here in North America.
Hope this makes you feel easier. Oh, and about your negative single digits... up here we're down into the negative double digits. It hit -19'F last night...
Some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue
Question
Could you order the board from out of state ? We have this amazing thing these days called the Internet... LOL
Beth
Did that last year.
The board cost $120. So I'm figuring a bit over $250 to get it working, since this time it would involve a thermostat, transformer, board, and gas valve. Hey might as well replace the original fan motor too right? Add on another $80. In the end though, how much do you sink into a 31 year old furnace that was built for a 20 year life expectancy?
I probably shouldn't have even posted this. But I do get a bit whiney when I'm sick, and being cold and sick makes it worse. :(
Thanks for the comment tho, I think we might think alike in many ways.
Hugs
Carla Ann
What is the condition of the heat exchanger?
We replaced our 1980ish high efficiency gas furnace -- auto flue damper and spark ignition on the pilot ~80 to 90% efficient in aprox 2002. The original 1945 gas furnace was maybe 60% at best. The 2002 -- with a spark ignition/pulse(combustion?)condensing furnace -- outside combustion air & forced external venting via APS(?) plastic pipe is aprox 96%+(?) efficent or is it 98%? A combination over several years of relays(?) failing on the board or a sub board, which was replaced, then the damper motor failed for the second time or third time and was no longer avalible and finally the heat exchangers were begining to burn/rust through, thus a monoxide risk. With the huge improvments in electric motor efficency and control in the last decade or two maybe a totally new furnace, properly sized -- often less far BTUs than in the past -- would pay for itself in a very few years?
Best of luck whatever you decide. Be comfortable but be safe.
Sometimes high efffiency appliances/furnaces qualify for big tax credits.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa