Why do people wait to see if their heat works?

[mikescooling]

Hey brewers, why do people wait until they can't take the cold any more to see if their heat works? Why wouldn't they check it when the house temp drops to say around 55F? Or God forbid, have a PM done?

 

[brew_ny]

Hey brewers, why do people wait until they can't take the cold any more to see if their heat works? Why wouldn't they check it when the house temp drops to say around 55F? Or God forbid, have a PM done?

someones wait to get the snowblower dug out from the back of the garage after we have 36 inches of snow

S_M

 

[GarageDweller]

Money

 

[mikescooling]

It's also a supply and demand thing. Prices go up with demand, so it cost more to wait. But I'm talking about just turning it on and finding out if it works or not. If you called me weeks ago and asked me over for dinner and said we have no heat. Without any tools I could probably tell you what's wrong, then get a M# and pick the parts up and swing by for the fix as I had time in my day. Rather than freaking NOW out because the house is 45F and unlivable. It's a manufactured crisis.

 

[AnOldUR]

Or God forbid, have a PM done?

I don't know the answer to your question, but agree. Brewing a Partial Mash will help keep you warm.

 

[Yooper]

I don't check my air conditioning when it's cold, and I don't check my furnace when it's warm. Human nature, I guess!

 

[Doongie]

Funny enough, I did check mine this week when my house got to the low sixties, only a few degrees lower than I normally keep it. I heard a funny noise in the vent fan, found a fault on the control board, troubleshot it, removed the dead bird blocking the vent (keeping the pressure switch open), wala, no service call, no cold house....

 

[mikescooling]

Sorry Yooper my bad, a PM also stands for preventive maintenance. I'm just griping about some of the phone calls I've been getting now that the temps have dropped into the 30's at night. I don't even do this trade anymore, haven't for years.

 

[AnOldUR]

What's funny is the OP's username is Mike's Cooling and he's ranting about heat.

We recently put radiant heat in the bathroom floor. Wife turns it on in the morning if the temperature goes much below 70, so I always know my heat works.

edit:
Do I look like a Yooper to you?

 

[mikescooling]

Funny enough, I did check mine this week when my house got to the low sixties, only a few degrees lower than I normally keep it. I heard a funny noise in the vent fan, found a fault on the control board, troubleshot it, removed the dead bird blocking the vent (keeping the pressure switch open), wala, no service call, no cold house....

Dude you did your own service call. I just did a IDM motor that cost me $170. Do you know how much that cost that customer? Pulling that dead bird out saved the motor. You may think about putting chicken wire or covered endcap over the flue on the roof. The birds sit there to get warm and get overcome by the flue gasses, pass out, and down they go.

 

[ICWiener]

I never even think about it.

Then again, I don't care, even if it's not working we can go 2-3 weeks without heat, waiting for someone to come out.

AC in the summer, on the other hand....now that's a different story. That sh*t better be working like a dream around the first week of May.

 

[Jaybird]

I have a SWMBO that gets cold easy.... Ours comes on early in the Fall, long before it needs too in my house.

Cheers
Jay

 

[brew_ny]

I checked my wood stove and it is working just fine, but I did do a PM by cleaning the stove pipe before using

 

[terrapinj]

we def take advantage of the free heater/pilot light check by the gas company each year - scheduled for next week and it's still in the mid-high 70's here

 

[Yooper]

Sorry Yooper my bad, a PM also stands for preventive maintenance. I'm just griping about some of the phone calls I've been getting now that the temps have dropped into the 30's at night. I don't even do this trade anymore, haven't for years.

Yes, I know what preventative maintenance is- I understood PM. I'm much brighter than I appear, believe it or not!

 

[Doongie]

Dude you did your own service call. I just did a IDM motor that cost me $170. Do you know how much that cost that customer? Pulling that dead bird out saved the motor. You may think about putting chicken wire or covered endcap over the flue on the roof. The birds sit there to get warm and get overcome by the flue gasses, pass out, and down they go.

Actually the vent pipe is horizontal, but yeah, the bird got in because the screen rusted out. My neighbor made me a new one of expanded metal, should last much longer than the chicken wire that was there.

 

[Anelda]

Eh, I never turn on the heat even when it gets to 57 degrees in the house. It's not that cold, put on a ******* sweater and another blanket on the bed.

Then again, I live in central Florida, I'm from New England, thus, I refuse to acknowledge that it ever gets 'cold' here.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

where the flocc is the fun in checking early? I say you take the gamble of your heat not working on the coldest day of the year. cold? brew an AG batch in the house. give me one good reason why you shouldn't, besides carbon monoxide. c'mon people, grow a set & breathe in harmful gasses. I used to huff H2S in the methane fields & I turned out just fine.

 

[alane1]

PM means having at least 4 cords cut, chopped, stacked, and seasoned...and kept dry. I only have 2 stacked so far. I am so far behind...

 

[mikescooling]

I love it when people have wood stove heat; with the exception of a chimney fire, ether they are working great, or the blower fails and they work OK. I want one of the new ones they have out now.

 

[Rhumbline]

If I lived someplace like North Dakota I might take it more seriously, but here in central Florida it's never going to be a life threatening situation.

Now as someone else mentioned, if my AC doesn't work, someone's getting hurt.

 

[DrunkleJon]

I personally could care less if my heat or ac works. Basement is plenty cool in the summer, you can always put clothes on in the winter, and I have an amazing woodstove that I actually have to crack a window to cool off because it puts out so much heat.

 

[Homercidal]

Wife gets cold easy. If she had her way we'd have a furnace running 10 months out of the year. I wait until the last minute because the only way I can keep her from turning that blasted furnace on at the end of August is to tell her I haven't had time to inspect it yet, and turning it on before checking for trouble could be dangerous!

For truth, one year I found a dead bird in the exhaust blower. I don't even have a screen on our chimney! I can't believe it hasn't happened more often.