My wife is cheating on me - A wood burners version

[wg_bent]

Last Night I decided to not light the stove since the house temps were over 75. Outside temp around 40 .Thinking hmm let's see how well the insulation upgrades do.
This morning I come downstairs..WOW still 70 in the house... This is awsome. I'm thinking I should be burning wood like Spike. A split a day just for the nice fire.

So I decide to do a fire anyway, and as I'm loading the stove, I hear the furnace kick on. Look at the thermostat...GASP...it's set at 70....Ohhhh the shame.

 

[hardwood715]

I hate when that happens, ya gotta get them anti tamper covers they sell, I got them at work, whats that guy say on tv....just set it and forget it! oh ....cept if shes clever she might fiddle with it by sticking a pencil in them air slots on the cover... I go around breaking all the points off the pencils, collecting pens, contraband ya know!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Clicking off this post quick... before the wife gets ideas!

 

[HarryBack]

heh....disconnect one lead to the thermostat...dont tell anyone...easy and fast!

 

[hardwood715]

hmmmm, now why didnt I ever think of that!, thats a good idea, yeah then you could always blame that bum, the furnace guy! he comes for a cleaning ,,,catches a frying pan upside the head...there ya are ya damn idiot, I want my 100 bucks back!

 

[babalu87]

Programmable thermostat

 

[hardwood715]

Programmable thermostat

I tried that once, came home one day in November, felt like i walked into one of them walk in cooler things, ya coulda hung meat in my living room, shes got a printout off some web site with instuctions mode program zone copy yes etc etc -had it on the A/C side again i hate when that happens, darn laptop with internet access!

 

[velvetfoot]

What bugs me is the two zones thing. Downstairs warmed by stove, thermostat not called for heat. Upstairs, not so, thermostat in need of more vigilance.

 

[struggle]

So I decide to do a fire anyway, and as I’m loading the stove, I hear the furnace kick on. Look at the thermostat...GASP...it’s set at 70....Ohhhh the shame.


That is why I had MidAmerican energy shut off my gas meter last spring. They do not charge the line fee or the taxes and you can turn the furnance on all you want it still will not put out any heat.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I've got a switch on my gas boiler that goes off when I crank up the wood boiler for the season, and back on the following spring. The rule around here is that you can make the house as warm as you like, so long as you keep wood in the boiler.

 

[jabush]

My wife and I are on the same page as far as the thermo...it's my ##@@&&*@*#@#@ step son that won't keep his dirty hands off my t-stat. I ought to disconnect it and shove it up his -----, then he can play with it all he wants.

 

[elkimmeg]

Harry already came up with my solution.T he only problem I have then I have to fake the trouble shoot to find out why the burner is not working

Meanwhile honey would you mind adding a few log to the fire?

 

[Eric Johnson]

So I decide to do a fire anyway, and as I’m loading the stove, I hear the furnace kick on. Look at the thermostat...GASP...it’s set at 70....Ohhhh the shame.


That is why I had MidAmerican energy shut off my gas meter last spring. They do not charge the line fee or the taxes and you can turn the furnance on all you want it still will not put out any heat.

What do they charge you to turn if back on, struggle?

 

[tradergordo]

heh....disconnect one lead to the thermostat...dont tell anyone...easy and fast!

Yup, or remove the access panel on the furnace itself, which generally releases a switch which disables the the furnace

 

[HarryBack]

Harry already came up with my solution.T he only problem I have then I have to fake the trouble shoot to find out why the burner is not working

Meanwhile honey would you mind adding a few log to the fire?

oh, Elk...then you get to play the hero! What? "Somethings on the fritz!? Say it isnt so! Tell you what honey, you get working on making me a good dinner, and even though Im no electrician or furnace repaiman, Ill take a look at it and see if I can figure it out, ok?!"
Keep a few cool ones handy in the basement....go down there, cuss a few times, tap something with a wrench every once and awhile, then come up, reconnect it. Dont forget to promptly disconnect again when convenient!

 

[elkimmeg]

Harry I keep two spare thermostats just for these situations I just swap another one in and connect the wire.
Naturally tthere is a frige in the basement with a stock of Sammy's so it will take me a while to fix it

 

[struggle]

So I decide to do a fire anyway, and as I’m loading the stove, I hear the furnace kick on. Look at the thermostat...GASP...it’s set at 70....Ohhhh the shame.


That is why I had MidAmerican energy shut off my gas meter last spring. They do not charge the line fee or the taxes and you can turn the furnance on all you want it still will not put out any heat.

What do they charge you to turn if back on, struggle?

They do not charge anyhting to turn it back on. I know the gas guy for this power company and he said it is one of those quirky things that they have never charged for reinstating the gas meter or turning it off. They MidAmerican will turn it back on in 48 hrs. So if all heck breaks loose and we have to leave in a hurry we can still get it back on in a reasonable time.

 

[Bezalel]

I shut off the gas valve to the furnace more than a year ago. No pilot. No gas. No furnace.

 

[struggle]

That is why I had MidAmerican energy shut off my gas meter last spring. They do not charge the line fee or the taxes and you can turn the furnance on all you want it still will not put out any heat.

How about your domestic HOT water?? Is it heated electrically??

Hot water heater is electric. Furnace was the only thing on nat gas. When we moved here at one time there was to meters on the house as MidAmerican Energy had a program that tried to incourage people to switch to electric hot water heaters so they had a meter for the that and one for the house. They discountinued that program and the hot water heater was wired together in the outside box on the house. When I had the house sided I pulled all the wire out and directly wired the water heater to the fuse panel box and removed the add on meter base.

Our total cost before the gas meter was shut off for utliltys I think is just around $1,000 per year. We just bought the new high eff washing machine so that might help drop it more as it will be a lot less hot water usage and dryer use.

In the fight to lower my elec bill more I shut off the downstairs fridge two weeks ago as well. It was here when we bought the house. Not really sure how much a of a dif. it will make. House has a full kitchen down and upstairs. Previous owners did entertaining I guess.

 

[hardwood715]

In the fight to lower my elec bill more I shut off the downstairs fridge two weeks ago as well. It was here when we bought the house. Not really sure how much a of a dif. it will make. House has a full kitchen down and upstairs. Previous owners did entertaining I guess.

Careful, I was going on vacation one year, I thought it wise to kill the breaker to the shop, to save on electric while I was gone, stupid panel was scribbled all over the breaker sheet, anyway I killed the wrong breaker, damn smelled like a morgue, freezer full of deer, beef, ended up looking and smelling like Michael Myers went on a tear in my basement, wifey,,, well you probably can imagine that conversation!

 

[Eric Johnson]

Before you turn the gas back on, check on your pilot nozzle and elsewhere on the burner to make sure that spiders haven't moved in. Something about the gas residue attracts them, and your appliances won't work right if the gas flow is impeded by spider nests. Save you some money on a service call.

 

[struggle]

Thanks for the tips on that. IF and when it goes back on the whole thing should be checked out. We have not had it serviced since we owned the house (9yrs).

 

[begreen]

Eric is right. And if you have a damp basement condensation and rust can build up on the burners. I would cycle the unit about once a week or at least once a month. Otherwise, when needed, you may really need a service man to come out and get it working again.

 

[struggle]

It has not run for the last three years. I would guess if something needed to be done in an emergency way we have to HVAC guys in our town of 1,500 people that live in town so it would be possible to get them over here asap if needed. Nice thing about living in a small town.

 

[BrotherBart]

All sorts of things happen starting back up after shutdowns. When we would travel in the winter I used to just drain our whole house like you do a mobile home and shut down everything but the fridge. All electric here.

Last time we did that we came back into a twenty degree house and in the frenzy to get the stove cranking and things back on line I hit the breaker for the water heater before I hit the one for the well pump. No hot water around here until I got the new elements the next day and installed them.