cold house, no shower and unhappy SWMBO

Kaiser · 02-07-2008, 05:02 PM

Last night I came home and turned on the heat. After being in the basement for a while I noticed that it got unusually warm and it started smelling like burnt oil. So I check the vent outside and it is not blowing. Oh well, the blower seems to be broken, but what concerned me the most is that there is a system in place that is supposed to shut off the furnace if the venting doesn't work. I had to remove dirt from the sensor pipe earlier this heating season to fix a sporadic burner-shut-off.

The thing is, that if I would not have been in the basement, and noticed this, the house could have burnt down. Supposedly there should be a back-up sensor for heat build-up, but that only exists for the warm water heater.
So I reajusted the pressure sensor to work again and the blower was broken b/c it's blower wheel corroded away. I literally broke off the drive shaft since it was an aluminum one that is not supposed to be used for oil-heat, the internet is great for this kind of research. But nobody seems to sell them w/o selling the motor with it which would be $340 instead of $40. Ahhhrgg...

Well I found a place on-line that has them, but I won't have it until tomorrow. But until then cold house, no shower and unhappy SWMBO.
And beer just doesn't taste good when you enjoy it in the cold, except for the Doppelbock

Kai

**bigjohnmilford** · 02-07-2008, 05:07 PM

Sorry to hear about that. At least it hasn't been that cold this week. I hope you get it fixed before the weekend.

BuffaloSabresBrewer · 02-07-2008, 05:08 PM

problem heat
solution sex

**the_bird** · 02-07-2008, 05:16 PM

Ugh, that sucks. I've had more issues with the furnace than I want to think about (mostly my fault).

I'm a complete tool. Last winter, before I finally got around to getting our oil delivered automatically, we ran out. In February. On the coldest day in February. It was like -10° or -15°. Sunday night. Whole town pretty much shut down. So, we spent the night in a hotel until I could get an emergency delivery in the morning.

I've also had the furnace start spewing black smoke everywhere before I learned that it needs to be cleaned EVERY winter. Filled the entire basement with soot. House reeked of fuel oil/smoke for weeks. Nothing less sexy than a burned-petroleum stench. Again, me = tool.

Alamo_Beer · 02-07-2008, 05:34 PM

Man that sucks Kai!

Heat isn't a big deal down here, we could probubly even do without a heater. AC on the other hand is a MUST. When we first moved into our house the AC stopped coming on, oh yeah and this was August. Of course we were broke and just lived with it for a few horrible, hot, sweaty days. We finally saved up a little cash and called some place. Dude came out, looked it all over and laughed. Some dinky little fuse went out at the AC unit. It would have cost like $20 but he noticed our bumper stickers from Austin and said he was from there too. He did it for like $5.

Man those 3 of 4 sweaty days sucked!

Kaiser · 02-07-2008, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_bird

Last winter, before I finally got around to getting our oil delivered automatically, we ran out.

Happened to us too. But I blame a faulty gauge on this. It stopped at 1/8 full and I thought that we can still go for a few days since I wanted to push the expense into the next month. Well I was wrong and looked like a dope when I had to tell the oil company that they should hurry b/c I ran out.

Kai

**Bobby_M** · 02-07-2008, 05:39 PM

It's nice to own one of those oil filled electric radiators for emergencies like this. Growing up in my parent's house, we had an oil fired hot water based heat system that also supplied the house's hot water. It sucked. They eventually converted over to nat gas and got a standalone water heater and now they don't run out of hot water mid shower. It also sounds like a good reason to think about put a wood burning stove somewhere in the house.

**the_bird** · 02-07-2008, 05:44 PM

We have a wood-burning stove in the basement, but I've never planned to use it so I've never had it inspected.

To finish my "I'm a dumbass" story, of course once the oil was delivered, we weren't getting heat to the whole house - pipes had frozen. This also contributed to the dishwasher freezing up (which it tends to do every winter anyway, I need to gut the kitchen and re-insulate), which led to some value breaking, which led to hot water pouring out of the front of the dishwasher and across the floor and into the basement.....

Boston · 02-07-2008, 07:54 PM

Kai,
2 words
North Carolina

**Yooper** · 02-07-2008, 07:59 PM

Oh, that just sucks! My mind keeps running through the fact that you were in the basement and noticed this. It could have been a disaster for your family if you were just heading off to bed or something and didn't notice that. Thank God you did!

Oh, and Boston- two words for you:

Past 1,000?