Going to be a cold night tonight, Central heat pump went out....

-
dustermaniac

dustermaniac

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2009
Messages
6,186
Reaction score
289
Location
Modesto, CA
Going to be a cold night tonight. No heat in the house as I got called by the wife and she told me that there was just cold air blowing into the house. Came home and checked Central Unit and damn heat pump is shot. Now awaiting to get it fixed. If it gets too cold Ill get the kids and wife into the camper and crank up the propane heater in the camper.
 
Hey Tom, don't you have a Aux. or Emergency setting on the stat that will run the electric heat strips in the indoor unit? Costs more $$$ to run, but at least you guys wouldn't be cold for a few days......
 
OldmanRick said:
Hey Tom, don't you have a Aux. or Emergency setting on the stat that will run the electric heat strips in the indoor unit? Costs more $$$ to run, but at least you guys wouldn't be cold for a few days......
Click to expand...

Tried to run the heater on the emergency setting. Still getting cold air. May be more than heat pump at this point but it got too dark to do any more troubleshooting and even so, I cannot get any parts until tomorrow.
 
dustermaniac said:
Tried to run the heater on the emergency setting. Still getting cold air. May be more than heat pump at this point but it got too dark to do any more troubleshooting and even so, I cannot get any parts until tomorrow.
Click to expand...

That sucks!!! It's supposed to get even colder here over the weekend, so i'm sure you'll be getting it too. Only thing i could think of without getting in to too much, is to check the breaker or disconnect on the outside unit to see if it tripped for some reason. The camper may be your only option at this point? Hope that works for y'all, man i hate being cold...:smile:.
 
North Carolina FEH.... You dunno cold until you visit North Dakota in January. When winter comes in El Paso, TX, I ALWAYS have my window open, just to beat the heat. :\

Buuuut, turn your oven on. Do bursts of low temp (20 minutes at 200f or so, to save a bit on the electric bill) to heat up your house. We did it for a whole winter once; our fuel oil line flash-froze so hard it burst. Didn't have the money to buy a new line (we were broke farmers at the time), so we went an entire ND winter in the sticks with no heat in the house.... THAT is effing COLD...

Another alternative is to get a little 20-dollar space heater or two for rooms, or just put on a few extra clothes! :)

Also, close doors and put up blankets in hallways to section-off the house. Easier to heat a room or two at a time than it is the whole house...


- CK
 
dustermaniac said:
Going to be a cold night tonight. No heat in the house as I got called by the wife and she told me that there was just cold air blowing into the house. Came home and checked Central Unit and damn heat pump is shot. Now awaiting to get it fixed. If it gets too cold Ill get the kids and wife into the camper and crank up the propane heater in the camper.
Click to expand...

Well, you are in luck because there is a repairman living close to you, as in your own house. Sad it has happened but at least you are there.

Come to think of it, isn't your house a rental? Call to get the repairs authorized and send them a bill.
 
Aren't you supposed to know how to troubleshoot this? Doesn't that unit have auxiliary heat strips? They getting power? Are there breakers right in the furnace (some do) for the aux heat?

If nothing else, try jumpering the aux. heat terminals at the terminal board on the unit. Maybe the stat is AFU?

I can think of almost no problem with a heat pump where both the refrigeration and the electric heat are down, unless some idiot wired them to the same power source and the breaker has failed. If the blower runs, you should be able to get electric heat.
 
Good thing you have a nice camper, it could be fun to have a family slumber party.
 
Some of these systems do not have a back up heat, and if they do some folks shut the heat strip breakers off so no one will turn the emergency heat on at the thermostat... look at the unit in the attic (but I am sure you know this already in your line of work...
Heat pumps have a change over valve that will stick, have the unit open or have a way to tap the valve as some one hits the thermostat from cool to heat and tap the change over valve with a screw driver handle will some times make it reverse. an easy fix would be your 24 volt supply went bad and all you need is a new transformer..
If you have heat strips your thermostat may have bit the dust.

I have dun heat and air work and it could be as easy as the things I said or the relay went bad, I am sure you have a volt meter, check for a 24 volt reading in the thermostat or at the transformer , if you have 24 volts I bet the change over valve is stuck and needs to be changed out, BUT you can tap it and make it go to heat pump (reversing valve is easy to recognize) It is inline with your compressor with a pair of wires running to it, I have tapped them before and they change over... But if it shuts off it will go back to defrost and not return to heat(reversing valve)...
What is the date on your unit dustermaniac ? transformers (24 volt supply is know to go bad in 4 years)... a meter on your thermostat is easy to check for 24 volts. With your experience you can fix this on your own hopefully .... Good luck and I hope you are already getting heat :cheers:
 
67Dart273 said:
Aren't you supposed to know how to troubleshoot this? Doesn't that unit have auxiliary heat strips? They getting power? Are there breakers right in the furnace (some do) for the aux heat?

If nothing else, try jumpering the aux. heat terminals at the terminal board on the unit. Maybe the stat is AFU?

I can think of almost no problem with a heat pump where both the refrigeration and the electric heat are down, unless some idiot wired them to the same power source and the breaker has failed. If the blower runs, you should be able to get electric heat.
Click to expand...

Yes I can troubleshoot this and have already determined the heat pump is out. I tried to jump the aux at the board without success. The unit is about 8-10 years old, either way I will need to get authorization from rental company to repair. We did call them and got the obligatory"we will try to get someone out there but it is after hours"

The rental company has given me permission to look at the unit but I did not want to get into start taking it apart as it is located outside the house not in a very easy accessible area between some shrubs and with darkness and the fact that we can rough it out for a night, I decided to wait till tomorrow to get into it more in detail. We do have the RV with a tank and a half of LP to get us through if needed. Actually we had a small stand up electric heater in the camper that I brought in and with that and the oven we are fine.
 
Opp's! did not know you are in a rental .... my bad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top