Furnace problems anyone??

[Kyle Kraft]

Got a call from the LOML yesterday after she returned home from work....the furnace quit and the house was at 51 deg. F. I had read somewhere on a forum, possibly SMC, to check the intake and exhaust pipes for blockage. Sure enough, when I arrived home I went straight outside to the vent pipe location to find a HUGE snowdrift which had formed during the day!! I simply removed it, rebooted the furnace and T-stat, and we have HEAT!!

If I read the tip here, thank you!!! If not, then maybe this will help someone else.

[David G Baker]

Got a call from the LOML yesterday after she returned home from work....the furnace quit and the house was at 51 deg. F. I had read somewhere on a forum, possibly SMC, to check the intake and exhaust pipes for blockage. Sure enough, when I arrived home I went straight outside to the vent pipe location to find a HUGE snowdrift which had formed during the day!! I simply removed it, rebooted the furnace and T-stat, and we have HEAT!!

If I read the tip here, thank you!!! If not, then maybe this will help someone else.
Kyle,
Don't you just love it when you can fix a problem that you found the answer to on one of the Forums? They can be life savers at times.
Think maybe you got the heat back on just in time for the big storm. I live about 30 miles North of Mount Pleasant and it looks like we are going to miss most of the snow. Right now the Sun is shining and the temp is 13*.
The thing that concerns me the most is loosing power this time of year. Think a generator is in the cards.
David B

[Kyle Kraft]

Dave,

I have a gasoline powered generator, and I'm seriously considering a conversion kit for natural gas. Our power goes out freqently here in the Kalamazoo boondocks. Here is a tip, though. Did you know that if you experience 8 outages in a rolling calendar year, you may get a refund from your utility?? I found that out from the Michigan Public Service Commission. I log every time we lose power, and recently sent my claim form in for a refund. The amount is anywhere from $25 to a full months charges but to me its not the money its the principle.

[David G Baker]

Kyle,
I did not know about the rebate. I am like you, I have strong principles when something I am paying for tends to fail frequently. So far I have not had more than three power outages in one year. I have been debating the generator issue for several years now. The thing that keeps coming up is that I weld quite a bit and want a DC welder. I have a couple of AC welders and a MIG set up. I have priced the generator/welder combination units and for the same wattage the combos are actually cheaper. The other issue is when the power goes out a lot of times it is in the middle of the night, do I want to get up in the middle of the night, hook up the generator, etc. The natural gas starts sounding much better when I do any serious thinking about it. If I do go natural gas I am going to get a 15k unit so I can power everything and not have to worry about anything except my high natural gas bill.
It is around 12:30 and the Sun is still shinning.
David B

[Ben Grunow]

The local inspectors have really clued into the idea of make up air for furnaces/boilers in basements that are small or have finished space around here. The idea is that a duct from the outside allows fresh air in to the basement to replace the air drawn up the chimney during combustion inside the furnace.

These are usually equipped with a "sail switch" that only allows the unit to fire if there is a flow of air being supplied by the fan that is automatically turned on when the boiler needs to fire. If snow blocks this intake the boiler will not fire and no heat. Pretty simple way to freeze your house and cause a lot of expensive damage.

Just something to think about if you have a setup like this.