Warming Things Up

At the end of January, an Arctic blast brought super-cold temps to New England, but even down here in Maryland we saw a rapid drop in temperatures down to the low teens. Thankfully, it came after we got the furnace repaired.

The week before the Arctic blast started off pretty warm, which is why it took until late Tuesday for me to notice that the house was chillier than it should have been. The Nest thermostat is programmed to stay around 64°F during the day unless we raise it (which happens more often now every day is a work-from-home day). I was feeling a little chill, so I bumped up the heat a few degrees and noticed that the display was saying it was currently 60°F inside. What was really odd is that Nest reported the furnace had been running for about 12 hours the day before, instead of the usual three or four hours.

I went to check the furnace and it was cycling, but not properly firing, so ... time to call the HVAC guy (the same guy who did a great job with our AC in 2017).

He was able to stop by late that afternoon to check things out; unfortunately, the diagnosis wasn't good. The gas valve was shot and needed replacing ... something he wouldn't be able to do until talking to the manufacturer in the morning.

Overnight, we added some extra blankets (including for the guinea pig) and by morning the temperature in the house had fallen to about 50°F. We pulled out a space heater to try and warm things up a little bit, and it did help some. We were able to raise things to about 54°F...

After initially hearing from the HVAC guy that the parts store's computer systems were down and he wasn't sure when he'd be able to find out the proper replacement part (and whether or not we were still under warranty), around midmorning I got the call that he had the replacement valve and could head over. Before lunch, he had the furnace back up and running and gradually the house reached its normal level of winter chill.

Despite the furnace working as it should, the basement (and particularly the basement bathroom) remain as cold as ever, so I went ahead and ordered an Eheat Envi 220v LE5022D. We went with the 220V hard-wired version both because of the increased efficiency of the 220V power and the cleaner look of not having a plug. It should arrive early next week and hopefully the electrician can run the new wiring shortly after that.

UPDATE

The Eheat Envi unit was installed on February 10 and is working well. It's designed mostly to "take the chill off," not be a primary heat source, and it seems to do that well. It works best when the bathroom door is closed and it's given time to run a little before it's needed, but even if you just turn it on as you step into the shower, it helps warm things up by the time you're toweling off.