Any furnace installers here? Am I wrong about this?

[yy4me]

something to our fuel company and I don't think they are being straight with me.
Because of a flood in the cellar last year, we had to have a new furnace installed. This fall, when we first started using heat,it kept going on and off so the fuel company put in a (Honeywell)digital thermostat instead of the regular one. Since this was done in the cold weather and the furnace ran all winter based on dial setting (65 degrees), we never thought about how frequently it triggered on.

Now that it is warmer, we have tried to keep the digital setting well below the actual temperature in the room because we do not need the heat now. Here's the problem: It triggers on every hour or so and runs for 10 minutes or so and shuts off. Today again, it was 73 degrees in the room. Dial set at 64 and on it went several times. This was going on yesterday too. My other half went to the fuel company and was told that this is normal and that to stop this, we should throw the red emergency switch.

To my way of thinking, this is wrong. I was alone today, and the thing was going on every so often. I called the fuel company and got the same baloney. I told them situation this is unacceptable, I don't believe this is the way it should work and that I even turned the dial down to 40 degrees and it still went on.

I insisted on a service call and they said they would schedule one. I have not heard back. Am I wrong? How many people turn their furnace on and off with the emergency switch. Something is not right here. (Plus of course, we are using fuel unnecessarily)

[Kolesar]

1. Is it a forced hot air furnace?

There are some "particular" furnaces that need to have the thermostat set for a longer or shorter "on time" due to the nature of the furnace. (Heat pumps or something like that). However, I don't think that is the story. If you turn the set point down to 64 degrees, that furnace should not turn on.

[yy4me]

2. The furnace is oil, hot water, not steam. It has a circulating

pump attached to it. Other than that, I'd have to check the model number in the book.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Does your furnace also heat your hot water?

[yy4me]

4. No, hot water is a separate natural gas tank. We chose to keep

gas for water as it would be the only gas line into the house. If we ever sell the old place, there needs to be gas available or it would cost the buyer a fortune to hook it up.

[Kolesar]

5. Two bad thermostats sounds "statistically impossible". I don't know what to say.

I don't know furnaces well enough to debug this. I would think that if the thermostat never signaled for heat, then the furnace should never turn on once. Hence, it would not be a function of the cycle time in the thermostat.

Maybe there is something wrong with the furnace. good luck

[trotsky]

6. Is it a high-tech super-efficient one?

When we got ours (a Bryant high-efficiency), I was told that sometimes it will "anticipate" heating needs and kick on for a little while - because it uses less fuel to maintain a temp than it does to heat a degree or two. BUT what you describe sounds well outside the range of what should be normal. The other thing I would ask, are you sure it's actually burning and not just periodically running the fan to circulate? Our furnace also has a low-power fan that we keep running all the time to have constant circulation, which also helps with efficiency and eliminates hot/cold spots.

Overall I'd say that if your furnace is actually burning fuel when the house is 73 and the setpoint is 64, something is terribly wrong and you should never have to throw an emergency switch for normal situations. Be firm with the company to get someone out and fix this.

[yy4me]

7. I just got off the phone with the burner mfgr. tech support.

He told me that what I have described indicates there is a problem with something in the control circuit and not the thermostat. He said to tell the burner installer to check out the set up of this circuit because something other than the thermostat is telling it to start and no, throwing the emergency switch is not the right thing to do.

He was very nice to me, especially since I am a layman and do not know the proper terminology for the situation.

[trotsky]

8. Interesting - I had a similar experience with my pool heater mfgr.

My old heater conked out last year, and with the choice of spending $500 to fix it or $1000 to get a new one, I opted for new. My pool guy put it in, but it would stop igniting after awhile. You'd hear the starter click, the gas would woosh so you knew it lit, but then it would stop. My pool guy was befuddled and kept suggesting different stuff to try. Finally I called the manufacturer, spoke with a tech who knew exactly what the problem was, sent me a part, my pool guy replaced it, and it's been fine ever since. Started up like a trooper this year.

Let us know how this goes!