central heat question

[MonsterStar]

It started to blow cool air so I turned it off for a few minutes then turned it back on. While having my hand on the vent it turned off for about one second then turned back on (by itself) blowing warm air. It could be my imagination but it seems to not be as warm as it was, but pretty damn close. Any ideas?

[Cubfan]

I went thru heating issues last winter....

Is the flame ignited? Open up the furnace door, initiate the heat at the thermostat and watch what happens.

Could it simply be that your fan is set to 'on' instead of 'auto' and so it blows even when the flame is off?

[MonsterStar]

My bad, it's electric. Fan is on auto, I'm not that bad at DIY. O:)

[Cubfan]

oh..... sorry, you never know.

I dont know anything about electric. Are they the baseboard heaters near the floor?

[MonsterStar]

no sir.

[jim]

New one on me. I have never heard of an electric central heating system.

[Cubfan]

New one on me. I have never heard of an electric central heating system.

glad I'm not the only one.

[MonsterStar]

Ummm, I guess you might call it a furnace. Most people around here call it central heat. And it runs on electricity. Now I'm even more confused.

[Will'sdad]

Is it a heat pump (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump)?

[jim]

I do not have much experience or knowledge of heat pumps. I know the very basics of how they work but that's it.

The only forced air (fan driven) central heat systems that I know of are natural gas or propane models.

Most of the newer units no longer have standing pilot lights and many are sealed up to the point that you have to removed several panel to actually see the burner.

I take that back. I did once see a hot water central air unit. The water was heated in a boiler, pumped into a heat exchanger which a fan blew air over it and warmed the air and then on up through the ducts. Pretty much the same as a gas furnace only that it used hot water. The boiler also provided hot water for the house too.

[Tim E]

In an electric forced air system there are banks of elements to heat the air - any of which can cease functioning. There are also "sequencers" which bring the elements on in stages so you don't have the huge load that these units draw hammering on all at once - which of course can also quit functioning leaving one bank off. There is also a mass of wires and connectors to come loose, burn off, etc - which could lead to only partial functioning. And, and, and... Anyways, the short of it is they are not DIY friendly and as a rule of thumb - don't mess with something that has a power feed larger than an arm..... :-) Get a tech in. Unless of course it is just your imagination......

[poppadopolus]

not sure if this helps, but I just went through an electric heat pump issue.

So a heat pump has 2 units, a cooling/heating coil that's outside and the furnace thats inside to circulate the air. Yours is a heat issue which has to do with both parts of the unit. My issue sounded like yours, it would blow coldish air until I cranked it up and then it would blow warm air. We called the heat guy and they replaced 2 parts of the outside unit (not sure which) and charged a visit fee for about 200 bones. I'm a pretty heavy DIY guy and heat pumps are usually parts you can't get so I don't bother.


anyway


pd

[MoparDaddy]

Well here my two cents:

you might to check to see if there is a Circuit breaker popped on the power panel if not check to see is there is any fuses on the units themselves, if they are the fuse do a continuity check on them.

[MonsterStar]

A repair man came out Saturday, he didn't fix anything. He thought it might be the circuit board but he really thought it was the thermostat settings..IT WASN'T! I'm hoping he gets back out here today. I'm glad when we bought this house we had the seller pay for a home warranty, we're only out 75.00 vs. who knows how much!

[MonsterStar]

Sooo......... he came back out today. He put in a new circuit board but that still didn't fix it. He doesn't stick around long enough to find out if it works.
Could it be a bad breaker? There are two on the front of the furnace and when the heat stops working (but still blowing) we turn it off, flip the bottom breaker, turn it back on and it works again. However, the breaker never trips, just seems to need reset, if that makes since. Anyone? O:)

[jeffus]

Breakers don't necessarily travel to the "OFF" position when they pop. You do have to flip it OFF then to the ON position to reset it, however.

[MonsterStar]

Breakers don't necessarily travel to the "OFF" position when they pop. You do have to flip it OFF then to the ON position to reset it, however.

That's what I thought. I guess maybe I'll replace the breaker and see if that fixes it? The repair guy talked to my wife and he still thinks we don't know how to work the thermostat. So I called him but he didn't answer his phone. He's really pissing me off now.

[jeffus]

I guess maybe I'll replace the breaker and see if that fixes it?

They do go bad. It happens. They're cheap enough to try it.

CALL AN ELECTRICIAN!





















(unless you're pretty comfortable with 100 amps coursing through your body or you know what you're doing...;))

[MonsterStar]

What I meant was I'm going to have my FIL replace it. O:)

I would kill myself.

Also the guy said there was nothing else he could do. Sounds like a bad repair man to me!

[jeffus]

What I meant was I'm going to have my FIL replace it. O:)

I would kill myself.

Good!

[MonsterStar]

The repair man came out again. Now he thinks it stops heating because it's full of dirt. I seen it, it's nasty. Looks like someone NEVER used an air filter. So the FIL is going to come over and we're going to clean it the best we can and hope that it solves the problem.

Of course neglect is not covered under the home warranty.

[Mark B.]

Monsterstar,
I have used the warranty programs like yours in the past. If I were you I would let the guy who was sent by the warranty company clean out and maintain the heating/cooling units. This way there can be no questions of coverage in the future. I know it costs $$ but uncovered repairs cost more $$. And if there were no filters installed chances are you will need to have all of your duct work cleaned as well.

[MonsterStar]

Monsterstar,
I have used the warranty programs like yours in the past. If I were you I would let the guy who was sent by the warranty company clean out and maintain the heating/cooling units. This way there can be no questions of coverage in the future. I know it costs $$ but uncovered repairs cost more $$. And if there were no filters installed chances are you will need to have all of your duct work cleaned as well.

Ya, that's what I want to do. I'm sure the ducts need cleaned. Money is tight so if we can half-ass it and get it to work then we might have him come out and do it right this spring.

[MonsterStar]

So far so good....

FIL came over and helped clean the furnace. The AC coil is dirty, cleaned what we could. Will clean it better when we get the right kind of cleaner. The air flow from the vents is more than double then before we cleaned it. :shock:

I hope this solves the problem... (seems like from searching the internet this is a very common problem, it would then seem that the repair man would have looked at the coils the first time he was here :roll: )

[SGTDad]

Our house in Florida had electric central heat and we had a lot of problems when we first got it - and the system was brand new! It turns out the transformer on the pole that fed our house was bad and we'd essentially brown-out whenever we pulled a high load - which naturally was when the heat was on. If all else fails call the power company (or get an electrician to do it) and get them to come out and hook up a monitor to your power line to see if there are any problems.

Good luck and stay warm!