We are finally getting to the end of the carnage wrought by the extreme weather we had last month. Only one house left that is running on temporary heat and that one will get taken care of next week.
You name it..........if the mechanical equipment running a house or farm around was set to blow up, burn up, freeze up or melt down in some manner, it did during the last couple weeks of February. I don't remember which week it was exactly, the whole month is a blur now, but there was a Thursday night where the temp dropped to -35 to as low as -42* here locally. Friday never made it up to single digits and then the wind started to blow. All Friday night and Saturday we had 10-20mph wind pushing that sub zero temp into places it shouldn't be. From Friday morning through Sunday evening I had 96 phone calls. Just on my cell phone. Plus the office. Plus Andy and Matt. Probably 150 calls in 48 hours. Needless to say wwe couldn't get to everyone.
We had more strange stuff happen than I can begin to tell but a couple were so off the wall I'll probably never see them again. At least I hope I don't..........
Got a call from a large dairy farm that we have 4 boilers running in 2 different facilities about 5:30AM saying all the boilers were running rough. Rumbling and flaming out all the time. I knew it was cold but didn't bother to look at the temp when I got in the car. The little VW TDI cranked right up but it sounded like a rod was going to blow through the oil pan when it started. That's when I noticed the temp was -32*.
The farm sits in a large flat area of land east of me and as I was driving through that lower area I kept watching the temp. It hit -33, then -35 and by the time I pulled up to the farm it was sitting at -38*. About that time I figured out what was going on with the boilers. Took the manometer in with me and stuck it on the test port of one of the boilers...sure enough only a fuzz above 4" w.c. This is LP gas so our manifold pressure should be between 11- 12" w.c.
I told the owner there wasn't a single thing I could do to solve his problem short of building a fire under the LP tank. He was not impressed with the idea so I explained what was going on.
LP basically quits evaporating at -40*. At that temperature it remains liquid and does not vaporize. You can take LP gas at that temp, pour it into a bucket and it will just sit there. Wave a match over the top of it and nothing will happen.
I hope I never see those conditions again in my life.
Another weird one was on a 20+ year old high efficiency furnace. It was a mid 90's vintage York in which the secondary heat exchanger is a series of tubes run through fins, much like the radiator on the car.
Basic start up sequence on a call for heat,......... the draft inducer comes on, safeties prove, power hits the ignitior, the gas valve opens, flame safety proves ignition and away we go. The thing is on these older 90% units, they were operated for the most part by simple mechanical/electrical controls and relays.
So what happened to this old girl was this. Condensate backed up in the secondary due to a plugged drain (lack of maintenance) and the ignition cycle came to a standstill with the draft inducer running. And running. And running.........pulling -30* air through the furnace.
The secondary tubes were partially full of water.
Which froze.
Which in turn split the tubes.
So a simple shut down due to a plugged drain wound up ruining the furnace. Even the condensate collector pan froze and cracked.
One of the crazier things I have ever seen happen.
I know there were a few people from here that were trying to contact me and I wasn't able to get back with you. My apologies. Give me a ring back or send another e-mail and I'll try to answer your questions ASAP.
Thanks
You name it..........if the mechanical equipment running a house or farm around was set to blow up, burn up, freeze up or melt down in some manner, it did during the last couple weeks of February. I don't remember which week it was exactly, the whole month is a blur now, but there was a Thursday night where the temp dropped to -35 to as low as -42* here locally. Friday never made it up to single digits and then the wind started to blow. All Friday night and Saturday we had 10-20mph wind pushing that sub zero temp into places it shouldn't be. From Friday morning through Sunday evening I had 96 phone calls. Just on my cell phone. Plus the office. Plus Andy and Matt. Probably 150 calls in 48 hours. Needless to say wwe couldn't get to everyone.
We had more strange stuff happen than I can begin to tell but a couple were so off the wall I'll probably never see them again. At least I hope I don't..........
Got a call from a large dairy farm that we have 4 boilers running in 2 different facilities about 5:30AM saying all the boilers were running rough. Rumbling and flaming out all the time. I knew it was cold but didn't bother to look at the temp when I got in the car. The little VW TDI cranked right up but it sounded like a rod was going to blow through the oil pan when it started. That's when I noticed the temp was -32*.
The farm sits in a large flat area of land east of me and as I was driving through that lower area I kept watching the temp. It hit -33, then -35 and by the time I pulled up to the farm it was sitting at -38*. About that time I figured out what was going on with the boilers. Took the manometer in with me and stuck it on the test port of one of the boilers...sure enough only a fuzz above 4" w.c. This is LP gas so our manifold pressure should be between 11- 12" w.c.
I told the owner there wasn't a single thing I could do to solve his problem short of building a fire under the LP tank. He was not impressed with the idea so I explained what was going on.
LP basically quits evaporating at -40*. At that temperature it remains liquid and does not vaporize. You can take LP gas at that temp, pour it into a bucket and it will just sit there. Wave a match over the top of it and nothing will happen.
I hope I never see those conditions again in my life.
Another weird one was on a 20+ year old high efficiency furnace. It was a mid 90's vintage York in which the secondary heat exchanger is a series of tubes run through fins, much like the radiator on the car.
Basic start up sequence on a call for heat,......... the draft inducer comes on, safeties prove, power hits the ignitior, the gas valve opens, flame safety proves ignition and away we go. The thing is on these older 90% units, they were operated for the most part by simple mechanical/electrical controls and relays.
So what happened to this old girl was this. Condensate backed up in the secondary due to a plugged drain (lack of maintenance) and the ignition cycle came to a standstill with the draft inducer running. And running. And running.........pulling -30* air through the furnace.
The secondary tubes were partially full of water.
Which froze.
Which in turn split the tubes.
So a simple shut down due to a plugged drain wound up ruining the furnace. Even the condensate collector pan froze and cracked.
One of the crazier things I have ever seen happen.
I know there were a few people from here that were trying to contact me and I wasn't able to get back with you. My apologies. Give me a ring back or send another e-mail and I'll try to answer your questions ASAP.
Thanks
