Dec 26
My new trane heating and air unit wont kick on outside when the thermostat is changed. I just used the heat two weeks ago and the unit worked fine. But now the outside unit doesnt kick on when the theromostat is set for either the heat or the Air Conditioning. I flipped the outside breakers and the main breaker to my home, but still nothing happened. The auto fan is working and the vents are blowing air. But the outside fan isnt working and clearly the unit is not working. Does it need freon or have i blown a fuse?
There is a number of things that wont let the outside unit work. Usually if the system is low on freon it will still operate, just shut itself off after a while. If this unit is new though it may be still under warranty. Just call the folks that installed your system to find out. To answer your question though it could be a fuse but something had to make it blow. It could be a transformer, or contactor, or contactor coil, or a capacitor. It could even be your thermostat itself if it isn’t wired correctly. If your unit is not a heat pump, the unit outside would not work in heat mode, only cooling. When the thermostat is set to cool, you should hear a click in the outside unit, then the fan and compresser should come on. If you don’t hear the click you may need a transformer, or the contactor coil might be bad. If it does click and nothing else happens you may need a contactor or a capacitor. Either way I would get a trained tech to troubleshoot your system for you. But if its less than say 5 years old I would defiantly be looking for warranty service with the original installer. Or if you have the paperwork from the installation you can call Trane directly. Anyway, Hope I helped…….
Dec 26
hi. anybody knows what the eccentric arm is? it’s a climate control component in a vehicle, but i can’t find information as to its function, its look, or where it is specifically located in the a/c. or, does it have another, more popular name? any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks!
Anybody knows what it does?
in control unit at dash area
Dec 26
I am a new home owner with little knowledge about the heat and air system. The Air Conditioning unit outside comes on whenever the heat kicks on. Is this normal??? I was told that the air conditioning unit outside runs backwards in ‘heat’ mode and becomes the heat pump. Is this correct?
Thanks in advance for the help.
Thanks! I live in Indianapolis, IN where it is currently 29 degrees. How can the unit be pulling heat out of the air? It runs simultaneously with the furnace.
This is correct, you have a heat pump system with electric heating elements for backup or emergency heat when needed. The heat coming from your heat pump when it’s the only thing running is not very hot, luke warm at the most, Some people love them, They are efficient if located and set up properly. Now for every 45 min of run time the heat pump will go into a defrost mode and you will hear a swooshing sound when this happens. It’s doing this to melt off and ice build up on the coils and line set. When this happens your electric heating elements kick on to heat your house. You can also run just the electric heat if you want by switching the lever on the thermostat to emer. heat. The heat pump should not run now. Hope this answers your questions
Dec 26
Alright, I always hear stuff about the "Chair Force" and how they have air conditioned tents, etc. Now personally, that just sounds smart. If you have the option then heck, why not take it? I understand their superiority in the air but let’s say an Air Force pilot was grounded. How would they fare on the ground compared to say a marine?
The air force is not trained to fight on the ground, they are trained to achieve and maintain air superiority. It would be comparable to asking an infantryman to pilot a fighter plane, it just doesn’t work. Some airmen are trained in combat (combat controllers or para rescue) but the army and marines are riflemen from day one. If a pilot gets shot down, they are trained to escape and evade and let the combat forces fight their way to them. You can definitely tell when when the bullets start flying who is trained and who is not, and for this type of job, the air force is not.
Dec 10
I had a couple dream scenes last night that I remember. The first one began with me being a school student, and being aboard some ship that was apparently the size of a mini-aircraft carrier. It was rather rickety. The ship ended up sinking, and we had to all get out through a tiny opening in the front of the ship. The sequence must have repeated, or maybe the ship came back to the surface, and we got on board again. It sank again.
Then a military carrier came to rescue us. There was an odd sequence where an officer getting everyone on board checked everyone’s luggage saying, "no traveller’s cheque, no traveller." Apparently he was checking identities of luggage to make sure that people didn’t grab the stuff of the dead and carry it off. It still seemed odd to me. I was watching this scene but didn’t participate.
The last scene was completely separate from the other two. I got a new car. It was a red one, I remember, and I was trying it out with some lady in the passenger seat — not sure who she was. It had some new technology in it, not your standard gas and brake pedals. I also was delighted to discover that it had Air Conditioning! (I’ve rarely ridden in a car with actual A/C.) There was a brand name that I remember, but it doesn’t exist in reality.
Thoughts on these as metaphor?
Your first 2 dreams indicate a fight inside you and your expectations in life ; but you last dream [ the third ] is very good ; yes this dream is telling you ; that you will meet love ; and this girl would be very special ; she would have everything you had wanted in a girl
Dec 4
With today’s rising energy demands, volatile financial & housing markets and a constant potential of increased living costs looming over our shoulders, catching a financial break anywhere we can as a consumer should be of keen interest to everybody. 90%+ Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) furnaces may easily provide the solution and can easily off set a household bill or two with all of the energy being saved by this furnace in contrast to the conventional 60-80% AFUE furnace that is more than likely currently in your home even as you read this article. 90%+ AFUE furnaces have a 2 heat exchanger design to avoid wasting heat, in the past the product was problematic when it was first developed in the 90’s, but has since been improved to near perfection today by most manufacturers to be a very reliable product and if sized properly and installed properly will save an incredible amount of money on the utility bill that you can capitalize on year in and year out.
The two heat exchanger design is the key feature that allows a 90%+ AFUE furnace to operate so efficiently. A primary heat exchanger handles the ignition of the furnace and the natural gas fire (propane, kerosene, heating oil or what ever the furnace burns) of the furnace burners. As the burners are engaged inside of the heat exchanger, the heat exchanger gets hot so that when the furnace blower turns on, forced air travels over the hot heat exchanger to allow for heat transfer to occur, sending warm air through your air ducts and to ultimately heat the air in your home. With a conventional 60-80% AFUE furnace that is all that is present for a heat exchanger, but through brilliant engineering furnace manufacturers realized that flue gases always creates hot moisture that is typically wasted out of the flue pipe and so they decided to capture this free energy by designing a better product. So engineers went to work to produce the two heat exchanger furnace and incorporated a secondary heat exchanger that looks like a coil to capture the hot flue gas moisture to re use this heat in a more efficient appliance, rather than wasting this heat out of the flue pipe.
Remarkably after 70 years of relatively little change in the heating market in terms of how a furnace basically operated, a vastly more efficient appliance emerged on the market. Two stage technology emerged as well, where engineers realized that a furnace did not necessarily have to high fire gas at all times to effectively heat your home, due to varying weather outside of your home. The two stage gas valve emerged to where a low fire predominately occurs on temperate (less cold) winter days saving an additional 25-35% on gas consumption and then when the weather gets real cold outside the furnace can engage a high fire to ensure that the appliance can keep up with heating your home only when high fire is truly needed, to ensure that the homeowner gets the best of both worlds; saving money and staying comfortable.
A conventional furnace is missing these features, because the conventional furnace can only fire in one stage and just wastes flue gas moisture out of the flue pipe. The venting of a 90%+ AFUE furnace is typically done with PVC piping material and most often is vented to the exterior side of a home. The 90%+ AFUE furnace burns and exhausts vastly more cleaner gases than a conventional furnace effectively lowering emissions as well, so you can feel good about doing your part in the environment when you have a 90%+ AFUE furnace installed in your home.
Some contractors are afraid to install a 90%+ AFUE furnace in your home due to lack of training and an inability to successfully repair furnaces in the first place. One legitimate complaint and or criticism that was true in the past, that these contractors would make, is that parts were more expensive on a 90%+ AFUE furnace and why on earth would you want an expensive repair bill they would ask. That all came to an end when Rheem manufacturing designed their new line of 95% AFUE 2 stage furnaces. All parts selected to make the Rheem 95% AFUE 2 stage furnace work are of quality durable design, but cost effective to repair after the furnace warranty expires.
This would not be the case with the expensive Carrier induced draft motors and chip boards or the expensive chip boards used by Trane and American Standard or all parts by Lennox being of higher expense in their product lines of 90%+ AFUE furnaces. Furthermore, Rheem realized that the primary heat exchanger was the most expensive part of the furnace, so they decided to make a primary heat exchanger tougher than any other manufacturers primary heat exchanger.
The Rheem primary heat exchanger is constructed of stainless steel and is of a tubular design with virtually no seam points present on the part, kind of like a car tail pipe, which rarely breaks. Eliminating seam points on the heat exchanger increases the life span of the part. On the contrary, the Lennox, Carrier, Trane and American Standard heat exchangers are a cheaper clam shell design that is no where near as strong as the tubular designed heat exchanger. The clam shell designed heat exchanger is designed to last a certain amount of years, but once enough time goes by these heat exchangers typically fail due to 4 sides of crimped seams separating the heat exchanger, leading to part failure.
Not only is the Rheem 90%+ AFUE line of furnaces tougher and built with cost effective parts in mind, but they even went as far as ensuring that all Rheem furnaces operate at a vastly lower decibal range making the Rheem furnace the quietest class of furnaces in the residential market today. Carrier, Trane, American Standard and Lennox furnaces will work and if sized and installed properly will last for many years, however when they break, you will surly pay a pretty penny to get them fixed.
When you call out an HVAC company or contractor to perform an in home estimate to install your 90%+ AFUE furnace, make sure that they are evaluating your whole house. Proper furnace sizing will involve an estimator to evaluate wall insulation type, attic insulation type, home exposure, window type, slab type, outdoor landscape, fire places present, duct sizing, how many people occupies the space as well as a few other factors too.
Be leery of the estimator that is in and out of your home in 30 minutes or less, because getting it right during the estimate phase will have a huge effect on achieving maximum efficiency of the furnace and your over all indoor comfort for many years to come. Most of the estimates that reputable heating and Air Conditioning companies perform may require between 1-2 hours to gather all necessary data, answer customer questions and to write an up front price to do the work.
There are many like minded good companies and contractors out there that conduct themselves that way as well. Your best bet would be to just call out an ACCA member company to perform the estimate, because an ACCA member company will operate professionally, follow higher HVAC standards and receives accredited support in training, up to date trade information and will be up to date with new techniques and standards in the HVAC field. Visit www.acca.org and use the contractor zip code locator to find an ACCA member company near you.
Article By: Mike Meincke. Managing Member of Lucky Duct, LLC. http://www.luckyduct.net.
Mike Meincke
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/what-makes-a-high-efficient-furnace-so-efficient-722633.html
Dec 4
The vast majority of people know nothing about negative or positive ions and how they affect every aspect of our lives. Here is what you need to know!
The air that we breathe has positive and negative ions. Ions are atoms that have acquired an electrical charge by gaining or losing an electron. Positive ions make us feel tired, irritable and cranky. Negative ions make you feel refreshed and can dramatically improve your mood.
In nature there is a balance of positive and negative ions in forests, fresh country air or near water. These ions are produced by storms, wind, humidity, waterfalls, water lapping on the beaches, the radioactivity of the soil and blowing sand or dust. The dry blowing sands or dust generate more positive ions and are sometimes referred to as the ill winds or witches wind because we don’t feel as well when they occur. On the other hand, anytime there is falling water such as rain, or impending rain, waterfalls, or your filtered shower, and even the lapping of water on the beach, the negative ion ratio goes dramatically up. These environments may have a ratio of 2000 negative to 1000 positive. We flock to the beaches and we feel a sense of well being standing near a waterfall. The same holds true in pine forests. This live environment doesn’t have the same pollution level of major cities.
Cities create an imbalance of ions in favor of positive ions. The amount of concrete, steel, car exhaust, industrial fumes, synthetic materials, metal around air conditioning ducts, all absorb the charges of negative ions. The minimum amount of negative ions needed for humans to function properly is about 1000 per cubic centimeter and for a real sense of well being a ratio of 2000 negative and 1000 positive seems to create the right affect. In a big city environment the negative ion count can be 100 per cubic centimeter or less with the positive ions out the roof.
Have you ever noticed how you feel when you leave the big city and head out to the country or leave on vacation to a beach or cabin in the woods? The stress starts to melt away and a sense of well being can come over you. Getting away to a new environment can be very therapeutic but you are also getting a good dose of negative ions.
A Russian team headed by A. L. Tchijevski discovered that negative ions actually kill germs and that ionizing a closed environment would sterilize the air. Negative ions attach themselves to germs, kill them, and they fall to the ground where they can then be vacuumed up.
Negative ions increase the flow of oxygen to the brain according to Dr. J. Howard PHD and this leaves us more alert and refreshed. You may have experienced this for yourself when you are tired and sluggish but feel refreshed right after opening a window and taking a deep breath or feeling a sense of calm being outside after a warm summer rain. Everything about the air smells different after a rainfall.
The original Indians lived in harmony with the land and living with nature was considered a green song. But it was when the colonies arrived and built their vast cities that the Indians would consider the cities black and alien to nature. They were right when it comes to the fact that it displaces the negative ions.
Newer homes built today are meant to keep air out and Air Conditioning and heating in. Great for your power bill but a perfect environment for an overdose of positive ions. It can really make you sick. Open the windows and let the fresh air in whenever you can and when that is not possible then get hold of a good quality air ionizer and even an ionic foot bath. You’ll feel better for it.
Willie Jones
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/why-city-folk-are-in-desperate-need-of-negative-ions-133170.html
Dec 3
The stove is heating much better (75 degrees) as opposed to the heat pump (65 degrees) at a lower cost. My question, will the heat pump be damaged by lack of usage during the winter? Heat pump works great during the summer for Air Conditioning. thks…
We have three Trane heat pumps. Two only run on occasions. The one that covers our upstairs guest rooms was installed in 1996. It has never been a problem after extended downtime. The other one (abut 10 years old) in the garage is only used a few months of the years and works every time I turn it on. Had it on a few days ago heating my shop.
