Gas/Electric Heating-Cooling Unit

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KLook
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Post by KLook » Fri. Dec. 13, 2013 11:12 pm

Ok, now I am fishing for answers outside my experience. I have a combo unit that sits outside. It is the cooling unit and has a propane furnace built in. Somewhere around 85,000 btu's. I have purchased electric heaters to supplement as it is cheaper and the furnace was running constantly. I noticed that it does not blow hot air and the air seems to be moving really fast. Are there adjustments for the high low temps and blower speed in the unit? I have not attempted to get into the workings as I just thought of it tonight and will get a look tomorrow. I will have the make and model tomorrow as well. I am going to insulate the trunk line with a spray foam, I realized that it is internally insulated, minimally, but more can't hurt. Is it normal to have the thermostat above the cold air intake at the end of a long hall? Seems the thermostat should be in the central area of the house on an inside wall.

Kevin

 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Sat. Dec. 14, 2013 8:24 am

There are so many possible issues here it's tough to figure out where to start.

Number 1 Welcome to the forum. Even though your burning propane we will try to help.

Number 2 There is normally a fan control located in the supply plenum that has a dial with two pointers. One is cut on and one is cut off. Find it and make sure it is set where you want it.

Number 3 If your blower is a two or three stage blower you determine fan speed by which set of wires from the motor are plugged onto the control board.

Number 4 If you have no experience at all with furnaces take some pictures and post em. Don't touch until you know exactly what your touching and why.

Number 5 Have you thought about switching to coal to supplement or actually replace your propane furnace?

Rev. Larry

 
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McGiever
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Post by McGiever » Sat. Dec. 14, 2013 5:14 pm

cough...cough... Larry, err um, better check out his bio...2000 some posts and some coal appliances. :) ;)


 
KLook
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Post by KLook » Sat. Dec. 14, 2013 7:18 pm

Thanks for the fine welcome and sound advice.......I am familiar with the standard controls and wondered if there were any tips available by some more experienced folks.
Most of those posts are in the political discussions section!
To add to my info, I have a Tempstar unit here. Model # GPFM48K120E 120,000 BTU in and 95,000 BTU out.

Kevin

 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Sat. Dec. 14, 2013 8:47 pm

McGiever wrote:cough...cough... Larry, err um, better check out his bio...2000 some posts and some coal appliances. :) ;)
I did check his bio. It states the coal stove is back in Maine. Per his post he is heating with a propane piggyback furnace supplemented by electric heaters.

He said he was out of his experience level so lets help him update the learning curve.

Rev. Larry

 
KLook
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Post by KLook » Sun. Dec. 15, 2013 6:15 pm

Problem solved..... the Tempstar did not have an adjustable high/low limit switch like old hot air furnaces. I cannot control when it switches on or off. The fan control is set by moving a spade connector to one of 3 settings. Hi/Med/Low. I moved it down to Med. and the results were satisfactory so far. The air no longer hisses and makes tons of noise and the air temp is higher coming out of the registers. I will have to watch to see if it cools the house next summer but I think it will work the same in reverse. Thanks Larry, my experience with AC is zero, my experience with propane furnaces is higher then most homeowners, but I did not know how this combo unit was set up. Turns out it was just another ho hum deal, take it apart, look at it, figure it out. I was just thinking someone had done the same thing and wanted to increase the learning curve or avoid any pitfalls.

Kevin


 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Sun. Dec. 15, 2013 8:10 pm

Sounds like you were just moving the air faster than it could be heated up and slowing the fan down a notch did the trick.

Glad your warm again and we could help.

Rev. Larry

 
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McGiever
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Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
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Post by McGiever » Sun. Dec. 15, 2013 10:16 pm

If you want to get fancy you could add a switch at some convenient location to toggle the blower from heating back to cooling etc. each season. :)

 
KLook
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Post by KLook » Mon. Dec. 16, 2013 9:06 pm

If you want to get fancy you could add a switch at some convenient location to toggle the blower from heating back to cooling etc. each season. :)
You have my attention. I wanted to buy a tstat that would do it automatically but they are to expensive for just that luxury. We have a bunch of days here however where you might do both in a day. The one I have has the switch built into it. What else did you have in mind?

Kevin

 
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agcowvet
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Post by agcowvet » Tue. Dec. 17, 2013 8:24 pm

Fan center? http://www.pexsupply.com/Honeywell-R8239A1052-40- ... des-R8222B Commonly used to change blower speed based on call for heat or call for cooling. May already have some similar feature in your package unit.

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