Let it begin....frozen pipes and furnace on fritz

[CHCRandy]

Woke up to a frozen hot water pipe somewhere.....but not that big of a deal. The bigger issue, my daughter has a heat pump with electric furnace back up. Obviously the heat pump isnt functioning in this....but she said last night they woke up to 50 degrees in house, furnace had tripped breaker. They reset it and it worked another 15 or 20 minutes......and would trip again. Son in law was up all night babysitting it.

Any thoughts on why a furnace does that?

 

[mmpsteve]

Woke up to a frozen hot water pipe somewhere.....but not that big of a deal. The bigger issue, my daughter has a heat pump with electric furnace back up. Obviously the heat pump isnt functioning in this....but she said last night they woke up to 50 degrees in house, furnace had tripped breaker. They reset it and it worked another 15 or 20 minutes......and would trip again. Son in law was up all night babysitting it.

Any thoughts on why a furnace does that?

Not enough air flow? If it has a filter, try running it without the filter?

Just one idea. I'm not an HVAC Pro.

.

 

[Brandon]

Probably a bad heat pack, one of the banks shorting out when it kicks on.

Sounds like it is staged and its the last stage tripping the breaker.

That would be my first guess

 

[Ingomike]

Not enough air flow? If it has a filter, try running it without the filter?

Just one idea. I'm not an HVAC Pro.

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This did work for a friend until the tech could get out to her house.

 

[Nugget]

Tell them to make sure the heat pump is defrosting properly as well. If it's completely iced over, it wont run properly. Might be best to just flip the system to fulltime Aux Heat until someone can come look at it, to avoid damaging anything. It's expensive to heat that way, but more expensive to replace the heat pump.

 

[Brandon]

Tell them to make sure the heat pump is defrosting properly as well. If it's completely iced over, it wont run properly. Might be best to just flip the system to fulltime Aux Heat until someone can come look at it, to avoid damaging anything. It's expensive to heat that way, but more expensive to replace the heat pump.

Heat pump most likely isn't running at all at these temperatures.

 

[indyblue]

Maybe bad blower motor or startup capacitor? Motor could be drawing excess current due to age/bad windings or when starting up. Also lose or corroded connections can add resistance and cause higher current draw.

I'm not an HVAC tech but I suspect electric heating elements tend to fail open circuit due to a hot spot or thermal expansion/contraction fatigue rather than short. I don't see how an element could short though unless its support structure has failed like this, causing the element to touch the cabinet or another part of the element.

 

[Kurr]

could the breaker need replaced?

 

[indyblue]

Why Your Electric Furnace Is Tripping the Circuit Breaker

One problem you may run into with your electric furnace during the season is tripped circuit breakers.

www.balancedair.com

The blower motor powers the blower fan that sends air through the furnace to pick up heat from the heating elements and then continue into the ductwork. If the motor is dirty or wearing down, it will overheat and trip the breaker. The motor will need to be repaired or replaced.


Another reason for an electric furnace creating too much electrical draw is a problem with a part called the sequencer. This is a critical component of the system that most people are unaware of. The sequencer is a device that controls the sequential starting of the heating elements in the furnace. The heating elements are the parts inside the furnace that create the heat that transfers to the air.


The furnace has multiple heating elements in it, but they cannot all turn on at the same time, otherwise they’ll overwhelm the circuit. The sequencer channels power to the heating elements separately, having them turn on one at a time until the furnace reaches the maximum heat level.

 

[Brandon]

Why Your Electric Furnace Is Tripping the Circuit Breaker

One problem you may run into with your electric furnace during the season is tripped circuit breakers.

www.balancedair.com

Assuming its more than a 10kw heat pack there are 2 breakers, one for a small part of the heat pack and blower, rest for the remaining heat banks. If the fan wasn't running the heat banks should cut out on a high limit or burn out(worst case)

 

[COOPADUP]

Paging Docindy

 

[Nugget]

Heat pump most likely isn't running at all at these temperatures.

Mine ran all night, with occasional interruption by the backup heat. Its almost brand new though. My old one wouldn't of kept up at all.

 

[Brandon]

Mine ran all night, with occasional interruption by the backup heat. Its almost brand new though. My old one wouldn't of kept up at all.

Common to have a lockout set up so if it falls below a certain temperature it cuts off. Usually somewhere around the freezing mark +/- a few degrees.

 

[indyblue]

My heat pump is going kaput, the A/C this summer was almost non-existent. Tech said refrigerant charge is ok. It must probably be the TXV's. Too expensive to replace just those so I guess I'll be replacing the whole unit. If it weren't for the cost of refrigerant recovery/evacuation it wouldn't be so bad.

Even if I replaced the TXV's myself (which I know how to do), the cost of recovery/replacement of the refrigerant is unjustified.

Trying to decide if I'll just replace with new A/C or go heat pump again. The heat pump hasn't saved me much, been running the gas heat exclusively so far and my energy bills are lower than the combined electric/gas bills from heat pump.

 

[Brandon]

My heat pump is going kaput, the A/C this summer was almost non-existent. Tech said refrigerant charge is ok. It must probably be the TXV's. Too expensive to replace just those so I guess I'll be replacing the whole unit. If it weren't for the cost of refrigerant recovery/evacuation it wouldn't be so bad.

Even if I replaced the TXV's myself (which I know how to do), the cost of recovery/replacement of the refrigerant is unjustified.

Trying to decide if I'll just replace with new A/C or go heat pump again. The heat pump hasn't saved me much, been running the gas heat exclusively so far and my energy bills are lower than the combined electric/gas bills from heat pump.

Unless you had lp, i wouldn't waste the time and money on a heat pump with gas backup.

 

[CHCRandy]

Well, son in law shut off the heat pump and went to aux. heat......it worked most all day. 2 hours ago it started it all over again, but now it runs like 5 minutes and trips the breaker. Anyone know anyone on here that does HVAC? Old CM use to be my go to. Daughter and S-I-L are trying to find a reputable company to come out and repair this unit.....might be hard finding someone with Christmas, not to mention parts.

Glad I got a bunch of propane tanks filled.......he is using a drywall heater and salamander to keep house thawed at least......until they can find a service repairman!

Thanks!

 

[Brandon]

Crappy time to be looking.

 

[Brandon]

Also, if calling a big company, they will try to sell sell sell, end of year numbers bs.

Also beware of the buy an ac and get a free furnace bs.

 

[Haven]

We ended up using Mowery for our heating. So far they have been pretty good, though the only thing we are doing is having them check the system twice a year.

This is a system that CM put in place for us.

 

[mmpsteve]

CM sure got around, didn't he. Mine was one of his last installs, furnace and AC unit. He came all the way up to NWI to do it, he and his son, and did a fine job. Rest in peace, Sir. You earned it!

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