Any furnace concerns in extreme cold?

[ERD50]

The space under the furnace. The furnace sits on a "filter box" that is not a part of the furnace and holds a 4"x20"x25" pleated filter. The house slab is the floor of the space.

OK, but is the combustion (outside) air isolated from the house air ducts? You really don't want those two mixing. Let the cold outside air go to the combustion chamber, keep the treated air from the heat exchanger cycling through the house.

Otherwise, you are pulling outside air into your ducts, and/or pulling the flame outside the combustion chamber (the suction from the air duct return). But "open ceiling" and the duct open to the floor (inside that closet?) sounds like they are mixed?

Not ideal, and possibly dangerous.

-ERD50

 

[Qs Laptop]

Here is something that might be easy, and it would help. As mentioned, add a large grill to that closet, but run the furnace air return directly to it, sealed, without any openings to the closet.

That is a GREAT idea.

That way, it would be sucking air from the rooms (balancing the air it is pushing out the supply ducts). The 8" outside air duct would feed the furnace and not get mingled with the room air. So it would also improve efficiency.

If a tech just replaced a furnace with that same setup, they should lose their license. It should be brought up to code. I'm not sure what the codes are exactly for bringing fresh air in through a duct, but that's how the sealed systems work, with just 3" or 4" (IIRC) PVC. So an 8" duct should be enough, if you know it is clear and not restricted.

This kind of stuff shouldn't be left to chance. Get it done right. Threaten to report the landlord if it isn't fixed. In the meantime, get several smoke/CO detectors.

-ERD50

They have brand new CO/smoke detectors as one of them activated a couple months ago. Gas company came out and discovered no CO but aged detectors. All were replaced, which made the sound of them blaring last Wednesday super concerning.

The landlord is very unresponsive to problems with the property. Another ongoing problem my son and his roommates are having are frequent tripping of the circuit breaker. It's so bad they had a choice when taking a shower--use the ceiling light or use the exhaust fan, but not both as it would trip the breaker. There were other combinations of things that would trip the breakers. Finally, my son ran a heavy gauge extension cord out into the hallway and into a different outlet so he could power his computer and monitor. Turns out they have two bedrooms and a bathroom on a single 15 amp circuit.

When I was over there on Friday he plugged in the vacuum cleaner in his bedroom to vacuum, and despite nothing else turned on in his room besides ceiling light (no computer, no monitor) and despite nothing being turned on in his roommate's rooms (they are out of town for Christmas), the circuit breaker tripped when vacuum was switched on.

There are a couple open spots on the circuit breaker panel. It wouldn't be difficult for an electrician to install another breaker in one of those spots and rewire the two bedrooms and bathroom. Anyone have a guess as to what this would cost? Circuit box is easily accessible in garage.

 

[Walt34]

There are a couple open spots on the circuit breaker panel. It wouldn't be difficult for an electrician to install another breaker in one of those spots and rewire the two bedrooms and bathroom. Anyone have a guess as to what this would cost? Circuit box is easily accessible in garage.

The cost would depend greatly on how easily access is to not only where the breaker panel is or where the outlets would be located, but everywhere in between. The electrician has to run a wire from point A to point B, and more often than not that is the stumbling block.

My father was an electrician for the power company and he did side jobs for "beer money" on the weekends, and starting at around age 5 I was the "gofer" when he needed one. So a seemingly simple job like that can mushroom into a major project if access is a factor.

 

[Qs Laptop]

The cost would depend greatly on how easily access is to not only where the breaker panel is or where the outlets would be located, but everywhere in between. The electrician has to run a wire from point A to point B, and more often than not that is the stumbling block.

My father was an electrician for the power company and he did side jobs for "beer money" on the weekends, and starting at around age 5 I was the "gofer" when he needed one. So a seemingly simple job like that can mushroom into a major project if access is a factor.

I was thinking another circuit breaker could be installed in the service panel in the garage and a set of outlets and/or lights from one bedroom or two bedrooms could be moved to the new circuit breaker. Wouldn't it simply be a matter of rerouting some wires at the service panel from the overloaded breaker to the new breaker?

 

[Bruizer]

I don't know if anyone said this yet but I would change the air filter more frequently and make sure no vent openings are blocked or closed.

 

[Jerry1]

I was thinking another circuit breaker could be installed in the service panel in the garage and a set of outlets and/or lights from one bedroom or two bedrooms could be moved to the new circuit breaker. Wouldn't it simply be a matter of rerouting some wires at the service panel from the overloaded breaker to the new breaker?

Not typically. Usually there is a single wire (a run) to the general area and then it branches off from there.

 

[jollystomper]

I know many of you find comfort in the yearly HVAC inspections. I guess the idea is that these will somehow prevent breakdowns. But no one can tell when a control board is going to fail, or when a blower motor is going to make it's last revolution, when a capacitor is going to fail or a pressure switch diaphragm will tear. These aren't items that are replaced as preventive maintenance so I'm not sure how these yearly inspections would prevent such breakdowns. However, if this gives folks some peace of mind, then I guess their money is well spent.

In addition to the yearly inspections, our contract (a) extended to furnace warranty and (b) after warranty provides a discount for major repairs such as those components. We had one situation a few years back that saved us over $2K as the result of the contract for twice a year inspections.

 

[jollystomper]

I'm no expert.

• I have read and think it makes sense that a plugged up filter will reduce airflow and cause the furnace fan to run more/harder to compensate as the heat is not being raised in the house.
• It could also possibly cause the furnace to overheat and then shutdown temporarily as a lack of airflow will mean no heat is drawn away.

I'd sure like to know if it's true, or there is no concern for even totally plugging up the furnace filter

My home office/man cave is next to our heat pump room. I started to notice things getting noticeably nosier as the filter plugged up, due to the fan working harder. I now change them about every 45 days, that keeps the fan quiet when running.

 

[kgtest]

My furnace runs for almost a month or two straight every winter. I replace the filter 3x a year. Occasionally I need to clean or replace the flame detector. I did have a motor go bad, that was surprisingly easy to replace. That poor furnace gets abused. So does the washing machine, dryer, water heater, dishwasher, refrigerator, oven, a/c, garage doors and garbage disposal.

The only thing I haven't had to fix or replace is the oven so far lol. Ironically DW bakes like she is making a run at the British Bakeoff reality show. I guess technically I didn't have to work on the garage openers, but I did have to replace springs on the garage door and replace some rollers. Wear and tear takes its toll.

 

[Retired Expat]

A furnace should cycle on and off. If it never cycles off you may be losing too much heat from the house from air leaks. The furnace could be undersized as well, so struggling against the cold. Now an inverter heat pump tends to run longer on lower consumption and output where it doesn’t need full power. But a regular furnace should cycle on and off about 3-8 times an hour they say

 

[Music Lover]

A furnace should cycle on and off. If it never cycles off you may be losing too much heat from the house from air leaks. The furnace could be undersized as well, so struggling against the cold. Now an inverter heat pump tends to run longer on lower consumption and output where it doesn’t need full power. But a regular furnace should cycle on and off about 3-8 times an hour they say

8 times seems excessive. On a cold day (-35) one cycle of my furnace is about 8 minutes. Then it takes about 10 minutes to cool enough to trigger another cycle. So, about 4 an hour. On a warmer day it may only cycle a couple times an hour.

 

[HF63]

You can also control the amount of cycles a furnace is allow to run. These functions are normally found in the advance setting of your thermostat. I set mine to 3 on the high efficiency furnace to get longer run times. This setting give me 1-2 degrees variation depending on the outside temperature. This past cold snap to avoid making any changes, I just lower the house temperature from 70 to 67. My run times where still like on 17 minutes on and off. Normally above freezing I get 10 minutes on and off.

 

[Retired Expat]

8 times seems excessive. On a cold day (-35) one cycle of my furnace is about 8 minutes. Then it takes about 10 minutes to cool enough to trigger another cycle. So, about 4 an hour. On a warmer day it may only cycle a couple times an hour.

If you won’t take my word for it…. https://www.72degrees.com/post/how-often-should-furnaces-cycle

 

[Music Lover]

If you won’t take my word for it…. https://www.72degrees.com/post/how-often-should-furnaces-cycle

I was just providing my real world experience along with some some basic math. If a furnace is cycling 8 times an hour then the house is losing heat very quickly, even if the furnace is oversized and has short cycles.

 

[GravitySucks]

This thread jinxed me. Woke up to no heat this am. Lucky it was just a bad igniter and I keep a spare.