|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
Damned Central Heating!
On Thu, 21 Mar 2019 06:09:19 +0700, John B. Slocomb
wrote: On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 13:01:59 -0700 (PDT), Mike A Schwab wrote: On Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at 1:17:17 PM UTC-5, wrote: A couple of months ago when it was coldest my central heating stopped igniting. My impression from the sounds it was making was that the thermocouple was bad or the pilot light that would be ignited was dirty or some such so that the flame wasn't close enough to the thermocouple of inform it that there was a real flame there and turn the full flame on. The repairman came out and said that the pilot and thermocouple was OK and changed out the main gas valve. The heater appeared to work for six weeks and then as the weather got cold again started not lighting again. The company sent another repairman out and he said that it was the main control board and replaced that. I am now $1,600 into "repairs" and sure enough - the heater isn't lighting still. It would appear to me at this time that there is nothing more to replace but the pilot tube and the thermocouple. So I wonder how to convince the repairman that there is something wrong with one of those? If you have propane tanks then when the temperature gets too cold you don't get enough propane evaporating from the liquid to run the furnace. Be sure when ordering for winter to get a COLD mix. Has a mix of fuels with a lower boiling point. The boiling point of propane is -44F and Butane is 31F. I doubt that you had a problem with pure propane but a propane-butane mixture, which I believe is sold in the U.S. as "LPG" is noticeably different. In fact I believe that the mixture is varied from the "summer mix" to the "winter mix" which contains more propane and less butane. different. -- Cheers, John B. |
Ads |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
Damned Central Heating!
On Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 5:47:52 PM UTC-5, news18 wrote:
On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 13:01:59 -0700, Mike A Schwab wrote: On Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at 1:17:17 PM UTC-5, wrote: A couple of months ago when it was coldest my central heating stopped igniting. My impression from the sounds it was making was that the thermocouple was bad or the pilot light that would be ignited was dirty or some such so that the flame wasn't close enough to the thermocouple of inform it that there was a real flame there and turn the full flame on. The repairman came out and said that the pilot and thermocouple was OK and changed out the main gas valve. The heater appeared to work for six weeks and then as the weather got cold again started not lighting again. The company sent another repairman out and he said that it was the main control board and replaced that. I am now $1,600 into "repairs" and sure enough - the heater isn't lighting still. It would appear to me at this time that there is nothing more to replace but the pilot tube and the thermocouple. So I wonder how to convince the repairman that there is something wrong with one of those? If you have propane tanks then when the temperature gets too cold you don't get enough propane evaporating from the liquid to run the furnace. Be sure when ordering for winter to get a COLD mix. Has a mix of fuels with a lower boiling point. Bigger tank? At what size tank does that happen? Add a blanket to your tank? OTOH, I have actually formed ice on a 9kg LPG tank, once, whilst runnng a string of tripple ring burners for bush catering. A small heating pad to warm the propane tank. Or one build for the purpose. https://www.powerblanket.com/blog/ho...from-freezing/ |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
Damned Central Heating!
On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 17:10:17 -0700, Mike A Schwab wrote:
On Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 5:47:52 PM UTC-5, news18 wrote: On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 13:01:59 -0700, Mike A Schwab wrote: On Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at 1:17:17 PM UTC-5, wrote: A couple of months ago when it was coldest my central heating stopped igniting. My impression from the sounds it was making was that the thermocouple was bad or the pilot light that would be ignited was dirty or some such so that the flame wasn't close enough to the thermocouple of inform it that there was a real flame there and turn the full flame on. The repairman came out and said that the pilot and thermocouple was OK and changed out the main gas valve. The heater appeared to work for six weeks and then as the weather got cold again started not lighting again. The company sent another repairman out and he said that it was the main control board and replaced that. I am now $1,600 into "repairs" and sure enough - the heater isn't lighting still. It would appear to me at this time that there is nothing more to replace but the pilot tube and the thermocouple. So I wonder how to convince the repairman that there is something wrong with one of those? If you have propane tanks then when the temperature gets too cold you don't get enough propane evaporating from the liquid to run the furnace. Be sure when ordering for winter to get a COLD mix. Has a mix of fuels with a lower boiling point. Bigger tank? At what size tank does that happen? Add a blanket to your tank? OTOH, I have actually formed ice on a 9kg LPG tank, once, whilst runnng a string of tripple ring burners for bush catering. A small heating pad to warm the propane tank. Or one build for the purpose. https://www.powerblanket.com/blog/ho...-propane-tank- from-freezing/ Hmm, perhaps have it close by the Hot water system where it can absorb wamth from it. YMMV, but ours are both outside. |
#14
|
|||
|
|||
Damned Central Heating!
On Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 3:44:12 PM UTC-7, news18 wrote:
On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 11:09:21 -0700, sms wrote: On 3/19/2019 4:04 PM, Joerg wrote: snip We rarely use it anymore due to the price-gouging in the propane industry. We switched to cord wood and pellets. No natural gas in your area? Odd for California housing developments. There's a big move now to all-electric since the electricity can be generated without the use of fossil fuels. LPG prices tend to follow the natural gas prices, especially here where they exsprt just about everything for sale overseas. Since the politicians allowed gas exploration and export with effective nil royalties, Australia has had to import Natural gas from overseas to meet demand. We've run wood for decades. It came from the tree loppers, which I guess is what you call cord wood, but the work involved is now too much and we've gone back to LPG. Wood is a preferrable heating method to gas to electric. Since our wood heater almost needs replacement, we did look at pellets, but limited supply leading to cost gouging was a concern, plus modern heaters seem to be tin plate these days. Here they actually grow more wood than they use. In fact many forests are recovering band east. |
#15
|
|||
|
|||
Damned Central Heating!
On Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 5:44:12 PM UTC-5, news18 wrote:
On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 11:09:21 -0700, sms wrote: On 3/19/2019 4:04 PM, Joerg wrote: snip We rarely use it anymore due to the price-gouging in the propane industry. We switched to cord wood and pellets. No natural gas in your area? Odd for California housing developments. There's a big move now to all-electric since the electricity can be generated without the use of fossil fuels. LPG prices tend to follow the natural gas prices, especially here where they exsprt just about everything for sale overseas. Since the politicians allowed gas exploration and export with effective nil royalties, Australia has had to import Natural gas from overseas to meet demand. We've run wood for decades. It came from the tree loppers, which I guess is what you call cord wood, but the work involved is now too much and we've gone back to LPG. Wood is a preferrable heating method to gas to electric. Since our wood heater almost needs replacement, we did look at pellets, but limited supply leading to cost gouging was a concern, plus modern heaters seem to be tin plate these days. I know someone who used corn in a pellet stove just fine. Wheat should work too. |
#16
|
|||
|
|||
Damned Central Heating!
On 2019-03-20 11:09, sms wrote:
On 3/19/2019 4:04 PM, Joerg wrote: snip We rarely use it anymore due to the price-gouging in the propane industry. We switched to cord wood and pellets. No natural gas in your area? Odd for California housing developments. Only in the flatlands and then only in larger cities. Up here in the hills its propane and you must buy from the company store. Hence high prices. There's a big move now to all-electric since the electricity can be generated without the use of fossil fuels. Electric? With PG&E as the supplier? I won't touch that with a 10ft pole for anything where electric power isn't absolutely needed. To avoid the high cost of A/C we switched to evaporative cooling. No tax incentives there either because politicians are generally not smart enough to understand the benefits of that. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
#17
|
|||
|
|||
Damned Central Heating!
On Saturday, March 23, 2019 at 9:34:10 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-03-20 11:09, sms wrote: On 3/19/2019 4:04 PM, Joerg wrote: snip We rarely use it anymore due to the price-gouging in the propane industry. We switched to cord wood and pellets. No natural gas in your area? Odd for California housing developments. Only in the flatlands and then only in larger cities. Up here in the hills its propane and you must buy from the company store. Hence high prices. There's a big move now to all-electric since the electricity can be generated without the use of fossil fuels. Electric? With PG&E as the supplier? I won't touch that with a 10ft pole for anything where electric power isn't absolutely needed. To avoid the high cost of A/C we switched to evaporative cooling. No tax incentives there either because politicians are generally not smart enough to understand the benefits of that. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ In the best year when we had a drought so little in the way of clouds, PG&E with huge installations of windmills and solar farms managed to generate 3% of their electric demands with "green power". And what do we see the general public doing? Commercial aircraft use is increasing almost by the minute. This accounts for almost 40% of private transportation fuel use generating CO2. If you go to New York or San Francisco, the bridges are totally lit with wall to wall lights. "But they are LED's" so instead of 10,000 watts they are only a kilowatt. |
#18
|
|||
|
|||
Damned Central Heating!
On Sat, 23 Mar 2019 09:34:21 -0700, Joerg
wrote: On 2019-03-20 11:09, sms wrote: On 3/19/2019 4:04 PM, Joerg wrote: snip We rarely use it anymore due to the price-gouging in the propane industry. We switched to cord wood and pellets. No natural gas in your area? Odd for California housing developments. Only in the flatlands and then only in larger cities. Up here in the hills its propane and you must buy from the company store. Hence high prices. There's a big move now to all-electric since the electricity can be generated without the use of fossil fuels. Electric? With PG&E as the supplier? I won't touch that with a 10ft pole for anything where electric power isn't absolutely needed.Yve cooling. No tax incentives there either because politicians are generally not smart enough to understand the benefits of that. You bought a house in a gated community, and you own two cars, and can't afford electricity? |
#19
|
|||
|
|||
Damned Central Heating!
On 2019-03-23 15:56, John B Slocomb wrote:
On Sat, 23 Mar 2019 09:34:21 -0700, Joerg wrote: On 2019-03-20 11:09, sms wrote: [...] There's a big move now to all-electric since the electricity can be generated without the use of fossil fuels. Electric? With PG&E as the supplier? I won't touch that with a 10ft pole for anything where electric power isn't absolutely needed.Yve cooling. No tax incentives there either because politicians are generally not smart enough to understand the benefits of that. You bought a house in a gated community, and you own two cars, and can't afford electricity? Please pay closer attention to what was written and, even more so, what was not written. Premature conclusions are also not wise. a. We do not live in a gated community. Never did. b. Our cars are both well over 20 years old and we drive less than 1200mi/year with each of them. c. Of course we can afford electricity. However, it is foolish to use a resource with sky-high prices when there is another much more economical resource. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Lanterne Rouge heating up. | Michael Press | Racing | 4 | July 9th 11 06:20 PM |
Armstrong's goose is marinating, and the oven is pre-heating | TheCoz | Racing | 0 | May 22nd 11 02:55 AM |
Safe temperature limit for heating CF | Carl Sundquist | Techniques | 42 | March 18th 09 05:23 PM |
NBG's 2008 SF to Boston 6th Mayors' Ride Heating Up!! | Martin Krieg[_2_] | General | 0 | February 29th 08 08:35 PM |
Denver's Real Bike Mayor, SF and CA heating up!! | [email protected] | Rides | 1 | July 3rd 06 05:30 AM |