Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Surprise

I was on my way home yesterday, and as I entered my neighborhood, had to pull over for a fire truck. Actually, two fire trucks (ladder and pump trucks), an emergency response vehicle, and the fire chief's vehicle (Suburbans). Whenever I get passed by emergency vehicles, I try to give a little prayer to the people who are needing the help, and that it isn't too serious. As I pulled onto my street, I found that one of the Suburbans was blocking the road, with another pulled into my neighbor's driveway. The fire engines were in the street, sort of near my house, but I couldn't tell which house they were visiting. Until one of the firemen walked to my front door...

Well, at least they weren't pulling out hoses. It turns out, Michele smelled something burning, but couldn't find the source. We had a similar incident (the odor) about a month ago, but it stopped before we could find the source. The firemen (about eight of them) spent the next hour going around the house, attic, and crawlspace looking for the source. They checked both furnaces, breakers, light switches, and lights. They used heat cameras, but never could find the source. They eventually left, with instructions to call if anything developed. For the next hour, the smell (kind of hot, like a hot glue gun, or burning dust, like when you first start a furnace for the season) was continuing, and then I found it. My furnace had failed. The blower, which had been running while they were here, wouldn't run, nor could I turn it on. But I found the smell coming from the cold air return closest to the furnace. And the grill was too hot to touch. I shut the system off and it took nearly an hour to cool off. Later, I went for a run, and stopped by the fire station to let them know what I found.

I called my furnace repair guy to come look at it. Today, everything was working fine, but after a while, the blower motor was too hot to touch. The failure was found. Actually, multiple failures. The blower housing overtemp limit switch should have killed the system before it got that hot, but it didn't. Fortunately, everything else is okay (it doesn't look like the burners were running, as it would have cracked the heat exchanger).

So, that was my excitement for the day. And, I managed to get an easy seven mile run in. With the lack of activity, my fitness has really slipped. My heart rate was higher, but my speed was low. I ran at a pace where my HR should have been about 150 tops, but was 160+.

1 comment:

RFalkenrath said...

Glad to hear that it wasn't anything major and your house is still there!