Furnace question

[Jersimon]

24 degrees out, plugged into 50 amp service. All zones set to heat and gas on the control panel. Aquahot burner switches are electric on, gas off. Neither the front or bedroom furnaces come on when using electric only. If I turn on the gas burner, the furnaces kick in. Something wrong, did I miss something, or is it just too damn cold for electric only?
Thanks!

[TXBart]

I think you're right, it's too cold for electric only. Last winter we had some days down to the upper teens and didn't even bother with electric AquaHot. Our coach was nice and toasty.

[Twomed]

Electric is good down to about 45. Head South quickly.����

[brobox]

The only heat from electric at those temperatures is the fireplace. Electric operates the heat pumps good down to maybe 40 degrees. We found that out the hardway too when were in Middlebury and it got down to 33 degrees and we woke up freezing.

Lesson learned the hard way...if it's forecast to get down to freezing at night, turn the thermostats to "gas" before going to bed.

[Cruzer]

The above statements about the limitations of electric are correct. However, you stated that the heat didn't come on when in electric mode, only the diesel burner mode. The heat should come on in either mode. It's just that you won't get much output in electric mode.

The heat exchangers will kick in when the thermostat calls for heat as long as the boiler is up to temperature. If the antifreeze in the boiler isn't hot enough the heat exchangers won't engage. Once the boiler heats up they will kick in. In cold weather running in electric mode they will run once the boiler heats up and then cut out after a few minutes when the electric element can't keep the antifreeze warm enough. It'll then kick in and out as the boiler temperature cycles. Note that it will take a while for the boiler to come up to operating temperature when you first turn it on because your electric element is only about 10,000 BTU so you need to be patient.

The 50,000 BTU diesel burner heats it up much faster and only cycles if it is really cold out.

If your system never engages when on electric I suspect you do have a problem. First of all, is the circuit breaker on for the heater? If it is, you may have an open circuit someplace or even a bad heating element.

[Swenster]

Originally Posted by Jersimon

24 degrees out, plugged into 50 amp service. All zones set to heat and gas on the control panel. Aquahot burner switches are electric on, gas off. Neither the front or bedroom furnaces come on when using electric only. If I turn on the gas burner, the furnaces kick in. Something wrong, did I miss something, or is it just too damn cold for electric only?

Thanks!

Went through the same thing yesterday. After discovering that only the basement heated a small amount and zones 1 & 3 did nothing, I called Jacob at cs. He said that at about 50 above or colder the elec side of the A/H won't do it. We live north of Brainerd MN and it gets fairly cold by Thanksgiving, which is when we leave for Fl so I will need to either run a electric space heater in the basement and run the fireplace or use the diesel A/H burner. Jacob said the Diesel burner will use .4 of a gallon per hour but that is continuous use. Based on the outside temp it could use as little as .1 of a gallon per hour which means about 2 gallons a day.

[RW8804]

We just went through the same experience with our AH. The electric side of the AH provided some reasonable heat at about 40 and good heat in the basement. But it is around freezing here now, and the diesel is running.

As I mentioned in another post, I'm no expert, but if I were to leave the coach in serious cold air, I wouldn't rely on anything but winterizing it.

[Jersimon]

Thanks all for the replies. I did some experimenting today. I think the problem last night was I had the in floor heat on also. I suspect cycling through the floor cooled the liquid enough so it never got hot enough for the furnaces to kick on. I shut off the in floor heat, and the furnaces come on as expected. Will leave it set like that tonight and see how it goes.

Since my DW does not retire until 12/31, we've got 2 more months before heading south We'll be using the coach a couple of more times before we head south, so I was hoping not to winterized and just keep it heated....

[RW8804]

CS told me that the in-floor heat should be cranked up to 78. It takes a long time for it to warm the tiles, but once that is done, it adds significantly to the heat exchange output. Also, turn the basement heat on fairly high, and look for obstructions around the basement vents.

[Curtisgeiger]

Originally Posted by RW8804

CS told me that the in-floor heat should be cranked up to 78. It takes a long time for it to warm the tiles, but once that is done, it adds significantly to the heat exchange output. Also, turn the basement heat on fairly high, and look for obstructions around the basement vents.

Why 78?

Is there a reason for that specific setting?

Curt



Sent from my iPhone

[1mainiac]

The Aqua Hot is a burner fired boiler the Electric is a option to save fuel. If you have power run them both all the time. The electric will reduce your burner run times and during low demand the burner will not light at all. However it is still a boiler system based on Diesel or LP so if you want heat or endless hot water you need the burner on. The diesel burner is 50,000 btu and the LP is roughly 40,000 btu depending on which model you have. The Electric adds another 10,000 btu but by itself is nearly useless. Perhaps with the fireplace on full and several small electric heaters you could call it a all electric coach. But if you intend on remaining 100% electric stay south of I40 even there you will wake up cold on a lot of mornings.

[brobox]

Originally Posted by Curtisgeiger

Why 78?

Is there a reason for that specific setting?

Curt

Basically warmer than room temps so it does not shut off until the floor is warm. CS told me to set the floor to 80-82 degrees until it has warmed up in 12 to 20 hours, depending on the outside temps, then set it to a comfortable setting.

If the floor is set to 72 degrees the warm air from the other heat zones will shut the floor thermostat off before the floor is that warm. At least that was the way it was explained to me....not being from a cold climate, I have to take their word.

[Marcosdad]

Brobox is correct. The floor heat thermostat does not sense the temp of the floor. It senses the temp of the air. Set it high enough so that it runs constantly until you get the floor where you like it.

[Curtisgeiger]

Ok -- thanks.

For the explanation.

Curt



Sent from my iPhone