"Baby, it's cold outside ...."

[lionkingcmsl]

I go up at o dark thirty to take care of business. The furnace was running, but the house felt cooler than normal. I checked the thermostat and its thermometer said 71 deg and the thermostat is set for 72.

At about 6:15a Maggie, my pussycat, is bugging me to get up to feed her. The house is definitely cooler, yet the furnace is still chugging away. I check the thermometer and it reads 70. It actually has gone down. After feeding Maggie I check the outdoor thermometer: -2.4 deg F!

I am so glad that I got the furnace working properly on Monday night! I don't think 4 1500 watt space heaters would've stood a chance. Next Tuesday the high is only going to be 12F!

For those that are unfamiliar with my house: it was built in 1940 and probably has only minimal insulation. The windows have been replaced with dual pane units, but the walls are very efficient at radiating the heat from the inside to the outside. The only good thing is that the walls are plaster on wood lath, so when they get warm they tend hold the warmth. As for the heater it is an oil burner with a .75 gph nozzle, so 100 gallons will last 133 hours or ~5.5 days if it burns continuously, which it won't; given the forecast highs for today, Sunday and Monday.

Comments

[thefoxaroo.livejournal.com]

Had to convert it to real measurements so that I could follow. 21.6667°C, 22.2222°C, 21.1111°C, -19.1111°C (Foxaroo weather!), and -11.1111°C.

(Don't know how to convert GPH) 378.541 litres.

My building has sound dual brick walls which would be good for insulation during winter if only the windows sealed properly. Thank goodness I like the cold. In summer however all that brickwork just soaks up the heat and turns the place into an oven.

What malfunction did you need to correct with the furnace?

Pls give Maggie a gentle stroke under the chin and tell her it's from the foxaroo. :)

[lowen-kind.livejournal.com]

To convert gph (gallons per hour) you just need to convert gallons to liters. So .75gph is <3 (2.839) liters per hour.

With the furnace I needed to replace the main fuel filter. In of itself is not a major issue. However the lion tried to be sneaky and run the heater without said filter. Bad idea! This ended up clogging the ultra-fine brass filter on the nozzle; which you cannot clean.

So I ended up taking the pump apart and cleaning the filter that is located there, blowing out the oil line from primary filter to pump/burner, cleaning out the primary filter's housing, replacing the filter, nozzle and getting an ignitor adjustment tool to make sure the ignitors were adjusted properly. All parts, including a spare filter plus a rough service light bulb for my drop light, were less than $26.

In less than an hour I had everything back together, which included cleaning out the fire box, and the furnace operating. It is this lion's opinion that the furnace has never operated better since he has bought the house.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, so that's what GPH stands for.

I'm in envy of your DIY skills.

BTW I found out yesterday that Australia hasn't adopted the metric system 100% - when I tried to find a particular bolt yesterday to replace a broken one in a doorknob I found that the bolt measurements on the packets were a hybrid with the diameter in fractions of an inch and the length in millimetres.

[quickcasey.livejournal.com]

The forecast here is for -19F Sunday night.