Took a week off this week but it has been fairly miserable.
On Tuesday our furnace failed at about 5 pm. This particular furnace has a blinking light error system. To figure out the top secret code you have to take the front covers off and consult the code book inside. The code said that it was a fuel based ignition failure. Huh.
So, on a hunch I went outside to check our propane tank. This is our first winter in this new house and I had the tank filled up in August. It is a huge 2300L tank so I figured we would coast through the winter. Ahh, no. We have gone through 1200 litres of propane already ! So it was effectively empty (they only fill to 80% capacity and you are not "supposed" to go below 20%)
So, of course the fuel company had closed at 5 and would reopen Wednesday morning at 0800. Now, it was going down to 15F that night so I was a little... anxious, since the furnace is our only heat source. We do have an electric fireplace as well that does generate a little heat but it is not meant to be used as a continuous, main heat source. So, packed DW in the car and we drove over to my office and picked up two portable space heaters that we have there. Came home. Plugged one in downstairs and one in our bedroom so that we would be able to sleep. I then stayed up to 2 am to keep an eye on the electric fireplace and turn it off. When I got up at 8 am to call the propane company the thermometers in the house said it was 53F upstairs and 50F downstairs. And of course a major snow dump started in the wee hours and continued all day Wednesday.
To their credit the propane company was there by 11 am. I have to pay extra since I told them I was "out" and that makes it an "emergency call"
I said, fine, whatever you want since it is bl**dy freezing in the house. The driver also said they were pulling the trucks off the road after lunch for the day due to the weather so we were lucky we called first thing. So we got filled up and I went back inside, turned on the furnace and ... nada. Bugger.
Called our HVAC guy who is a friend and lives closeby. He talked me through resetting it a couple of times over the phone. Third try and it stayed on. Seems that propane is a dirtier fuel than the natural gas I am used to and sometimes contaminants can get into the system from the tank (rust, etc..)
So we had heat. Hurrah. It was very stressful dealing with the cold when you don't know when you are going to get heat back. Add a pretty significant snow dump on top of that and dropping temperatures all week.. not fun. Our HVAC friend came by yesterday and blew out the ignition system to make sure there wasn't anything left.
Now today is my corporate taxes due day. Have to pay tens of thousands for both companies to the goobermint. Always puts me in a foul mood.
Maybe next year I'll take a different week in February off...
The movers were working 10 hours yesterday--I mentioned to DD that they seemed to have a lot of stuff.......
