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heater pressure switch
Sometimes it takes me an hour of not being able to fall asleep, to realize it's because I'm feeling cold. In spite of the thick blankets, fleece sheets, and the electric blanket at my feet.
Now I got out of bed for a while and turned the heater up.
Yesterday morning, the heater wasn't working. Only the night before, I'd been reading and replying about someone else's thermostat problem. My problem wasn't due to the thermostat, though. The furnace was getting power and making the buzzy noise that meant it was starting up, but then would stop before the hot air started blowing.
I called the person who replaced the heater's control board 3 years ago when it last had a problem. His voicemail said he was unavailable til tomorrow, but forwarded me to someone else. Of all luck, they happened to be nearby getting supplies for another job, and were able to stop by in under an hour and easily fix it. Based on what I saw them do and what they told me, and what I looked up afterwards, there was some small debris that they cleared out from a tube, which had been causing the pressure switch not to close
The pressure switch is a safety mechanism that prevents the gas from being turned on and the flame from getting lit when the airflow isn't normal.
http://www.grayfurnaceman.com/gas-furnace-pressure-switch-problems.html
From looking at the documentation that came with the control board, its LEDs were actually flashing the error code for "Pressure Switch Open". I didn't realize it was an error code, because the flashing was steady, rather than a certain number of flashes followed by a pause. If there's ever a problem again, I need to remember to check those LEDs as one of the first troubleshooting steps.
Now I got out of bed for a while and turned the heater up.
Yesterday morning, the heater wasn't working. Only the night before, I'd been reading and replying about someone else's thermostat problem. My problem wasn't due to the thermostat, though. The furnace was getting power and making the buzzy noise that meant it was starting up, but then would stop before the hot air started blowing.
I called the person who replaced the heater's control board 3 years ago when it last had a problem. His voicemail said he was unavailable til tomorrow, but forwarded me to someone else. Of all luck, they happened to be nearby getting supplies for another job, and were able to stop by in under an hour and easily fix it. Based on what I saw them do and what they told me, and what I looked up afterwards, there was some small debris that they cleared out from a tube, which had been causing the pressure switch not to close
The pressure switch is a safety mechanism that prevents the gas from being turned on and the flame from getting lit when the airflow isn't normal.
http://www.grayfurnaceman.com/gas-furnace-pressure-switch-problems.html
From looking at the documentation that came with the control board, its LEDs were actually flashing the error code for "Pressure Switch Open". I didn't realize it was an error code, because the flashing was steady, rather than a certain number of flashes followed by a pause. If there's ever a problem again, I need to remember to check those LEDs as one of the first troubleshooting steps.