[SEL] OT: furnace vs generator

[Dave Merchant]

Regarding jumpering around gas furnace controls,
this Wednesday evening there was a house explosion
about 10 miles from here, shook the windows here.

The house is completely gone, and serious damage
to adjacent houses.

Old joke:

Guy jumps out of an airplane, pulls his ripcord, gets a streamer.
Cuts it away, pulls his reserve, gets a streamer.
About then he sees a guy coming up toward him.

"He asks: What do you know about parachutes?"
"Answer: What do you know about gas furnaces?"

Dave Merchant


At 01:50 PM 1/30/2009, you wrote:

>Thanks to SEL folks for the answers both on and off list.  I'm still cold 
>but I have some good ideas to follow up on.  I will try to answer all the 
>posts at one time.  This furnace does not have a pilot light.  It has a 
>glowing hot coil that ignites the gas at the main burner.  The ignitor 
>works and the gas comes on momentarily and lights.  The burner goes out 
>after about 10 seconds.  Maybe a faulty thermocouple which I DID clean per 
>recommendations.  Both the draft and main blowers run as they are supposed 
>to.  I have considered the "dirty" power problem and it may be the 
>cause.  I would think that if the "dirty" power was the problem that the 
>burner would not light at all.  At this point, I will probably figure out 
>how to jumper to the gas valve to keep it open and the flame burning.
> > > try cleaning the heat sensor that that hangs in front of the flame, 
> sounds > > like it is not detecting the flame and shuts off, mine does 
> that from time > > to time and I just take it out and clean it with some 
> sand paper and it > > works fine then. They get a coating over time on 
> the surface of the sensor. > > Hope this helps > It probably has an 
> electronic board that controls burning, some of these don't like the 
> "dirty" electrictiy produced by a generator. After Hurricane Gustav I ran 
> my house on a generator for 10 days, my new washing machine wouldn't 
> perform correctly. I used an old one with a mechanical timer, no problem. 
> If you can find a large inverter it may run on this, some don't like that 
> current either, if you ca't fine one large enough you could hook the 
> blower direct and let the inverter run the electronics.
> > > try cleaning the heat sensor that that hangs in front of the 
> flame, > > sounds like it is not detecting the flame and shuts off, mine 
> does > > that from time to time and I just take it out and clean it with 
> some > > sand paper and it works fine then. They get a coating over time 
> on the> surface of the sensor.> It probably has an electronic board that 
> controls burning, some of these> don't like the "dirty" electrictiy 
> produced by a generator. After Hurricane> Gustav I ran my house on a 
> generator for 10 days, my new washing machine> wouldn't perform 
> correctly. I used an old one with a mechanical timer, no> problem. If you 
> can find a large inverter it may run on this, some don't> like that 
> current either, if you ca't fine one large enough you could hook> the 
> blower direct and let the inverter run the electronics.
> > I run a genset back up power and have no problems running my propane> 
> furnace. Are you supplying control power to your gas valve? Is your 
> pilot> flame staying on? PK
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Dave Merchant
kosh at nesys.com
nesys_com at ameritech.net
dmerchant at layerzero.com

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