We recently had a few 85 (and even 90) degree days here so I popped on the
A/C. It seemed to be running fine and cooling the house as usual. Then a
couple of days ago it got colder again, hovering in the mid 60s. At night, I
was pretty cold. I got up and noticed the thermometer on the thermostat was
about 10 degrees colder than the setting (not a digital) - but the A/C was
running.

It's been steady coming on and off as if it was cycling like it would be on
a hot day (let's say a day hot enough for it to come on every once in a
while instead of run constantly like when it's 95 outside). But there's no
real need for it to. So I bump up the thermostat to 85 or 90 or something to
get it to cut off and it doesn't - it's still coming on.

I turned the switch on the Tstat to Off (yes, the Fan is set to Auto, not
On) but it still runs! Yikes. I can turn it to heat and turn the heater to
50 degrees so it doesn't turn on and that seems to shut the thing down. -
Whoops, wait - Dammit - it just came on again - it seems that the blower fan
is coming on but the Heater's not on (it's still on 50).

Maybe the fan has just been running (cycling) but the A/C itself was only
turning on when it tripped - and just that fan air was enough to cool the
house down on those colder nights. But either way, if the fan is coming
n - OK, it' just turned off again - automatically when the thermostat is in
the Off position, something's obviously funky.

Should I flip the circuit breaker? Fortunately it's supposed to be 70s in
the days, and not below 50 at night the next for as far as my 10 day
forecast shows me.

Damn. It just came on again. The Tstat has been on Heat, Auto, and the lever
all the way back to 50 degrees this whole time (and the Thermometer reads
71-72 in the house).

Could it be the thermostat? I've been pondering getting a digital anyway.
Or is this something to get the HVAC guy in for? It really ****es me off
that our heater had to have a service call the first year we owned the house
and we've already had to buy a new AC 8 years in. Now here's another problem
with an AC that's 1-2 years old. I'm sure I'll need shingles on the roof
next.

Ok, it's off now and I flipped the switch to off. Let's see if it actually
stays off.

Any help on this is much appreciated,

Thanks,
Steve

On Sun, 06 May 2007 03:47:36 GMT, "Steve Latham"
wrote:


Maybe the fan has just been running (cycling) but the A/C itself was only
turning on when it tripped - and just that fan air was enough to cool the
house down on those colder nights. But either way, if the fan is coming
n - OK, it' just turned off again - automatically when the thermostat is in
the Off position, something's obviously funky.

Should I flip the circuit breaker?

That will certainly turn it off. Probably.

Fortunately it's supposed to be 70s in
the days, and not below 50 at night the next for as far as my 10 day
forecast shows me.

Damn. It just came on again. The Tstat has been on Heat, Auto, and the lever
all the way back to 50 degrees this whole time (and the Thermometer reads
71-72 in the house).

Could it be the thermostat? I've been pondering getting a digital anyway.

Yes, it could be, but before just replacing parts that aren't known to
be bad, I'd test to see if it the thermostat. The simplest test would
be to disconect the thermostat. While you are doing that, I'd look
close to make sure that no two wires that go to the tstat are
touching. The metal parts, and if insulated parts are touching, I'd
look closely to see if maybe the insulation has a hole letting one
wire touch the other. I'd look at the tstat end and the furnace end,
if you can. If the right two wires are touching, the AC will run, as
if the thermostat told it to.

Then note which color wires are connected to which screws on the tstat
and then disconnect it. If the ac doesn't go on, (and you've set the
breaker is back on)it might well be the tstat which is the problem.
Worth buying a new one, but don't throw away your old one until the
new one actually fixes the problem. Even then you can give it to a
neighbor kid and let him take it apart. (I guess these days you
should warn him about the mercury.)

If the new one doesn't fix the problem, you might be able to return it
and reinstall the first one, or at the very least, the one you removed
is probably good and you can save it as a spare, or give it to
someone. I'm going to use my old thermostat on a temp-zone for my
burglar alarm, so that if I go away in the winter, the alarm will
notify the monitoring company if the house temp goes too low. I'm
sure it has other uses too.

Or is this something to get the HVAC guy in for? It really ****es me off

Not yet. See what results you get from above. (I mean from the text
above, not from Heaven.)

that our heater had to have a service call the first year we owned the house
and we've already had to buy a new AC 8 years in. Now here's another problem
with an AC that's 1-2 years old. I'm sure I'll need shingles on the roof
next.

Ok, it's off now and I flipped the switch to off. Let's see if it actually
stays off.

Any help on this is much appreciated,

Thanks,
Steve

Steve Latham wrote:
We recently had a few 85 (and even 90) degree days here so I popped
on the A/C. It seemed to be running fine and cooling the house as
usual. Then a couple of days ago it got colder again, hovering in the
mid 60s. At night, I was pretty cold. I got up and noticed the
thermometer on the thermostat was about 10 degrees colder than the
setting (not a digital) - but the A/C was running.

It's been steady coming on and off as if it was cycling like it would
be on a hot day (let's say a day hot enough for it to come on every
once in a while instead of run constantly like when it's 95 outside).
But there's no real need for it to. So I bump up the thermostat to
85 or 90 or something to get it to cut off and it doesn't - it's
still coming on.
I turned the switch on the Tstat to Off (yes, the Fan is set to Auto,
not On) but it still runs! Yikes. I can turn it to heat and turn the
heater to 50 degrees so it doesn't turn on and that seems to shut the
thing down. - Whoops, wait - Dammit - it just came on again - it
seems that the blower fan is coming on but the Heater's not on (it's
still on 50).
Maybe the fan has just been running (cycling) but the A/C itself was
only turning on when it tripped - and just that fan air was enough to
cool the house down on those colder nights. But either way, if the
fan is coming n - OK, it' just turned off again - automatically when the
thermostat is in the Off position, something's obviously funky.

Should I flip the circuit breaker? Fortunately it's supposed to be
70s in the days, and not below 50 at night the next for as far as my
10 day forecast shows me.

Damn. It just came on again. The Tstat has been on Heat, Auto, and
the lever all the way back to 50 degrees this whole time (and the
Thermometer reads 71-72 in the house).

Could it be the thermostat? I've been pondering getting a digital
anyway. Or is this something to get the HVAC guy in for? It really
****es me off that our heater had to have a service call the first
year we owned the house and we've already had to buy a new AC 8 years
in. Now here's another problem with an AC that's 1-2 years old. I'm
sure I'll need shingles on the roof next.

Ok, it's off now and I flipped the switch to off. Let's see if it
actually stays off.

Any help on this is much appreciated,

Thanks,
Steve

If you have a heat pump, it may be warming you when it is cold and
cooling when hot.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

Do you have a HP? Gas or Electric heat?
It could be a high temp limit in the heater section going/gone bad. They
will force the indoor fan on to cool down the furnace..
you probably should replace the stat just because it can save you money in
the long run... May solve your problem but I doubt it.




"Steve Latham" wrote in message
news:sdc%h.820$wy2.559@trnddc03...
We recently had a few 85 (and even 90) degree days here so I popped on the
A/C. It seemed to be running fine and cooling the house as usual. Then a
couple of days ago it got colder again, hovering in the mid 60s. At night,
I was pretty cold. I got up and noticed the thermometer on the thermostat
was about 10 degrees colder than the setting (not a digital) - but the A/C
was running.

It's been steady coming on and off as if it was cycling like it would be
on a hot day (let's say a day hot enough for it to come on every once in a
while instead of run constantly like when it's 95 outside). But there's
no real need for it to. So I bump up the thermostat to 85 or 90 or
something to get it to cut off and it doesn't - it's still coming on.

I turned the switch on the Tstat to Off (yes, the Fan is set to Auto, not
On) but it still runs! Yikes. I can turn it to heat and turn the heater to
50 degrees so it doesn't turn on and that seems to shut the thing down. -
Whoops, wait - Dammit - it just came on again - it seems that the blower
fan is coming on but the Heater's not on (it's still on 50).

Maybe the fan has just been running (cycling) but the A/C itself was only
turning on when it tripped - and just that fan air was enough to cool the
house down on those colder nights. But either way, if the fan is coming
- OK, it' just turned off again - automatically when the thermostat is
in the Off position, something's obviously funky.

Should I flip the circuit breaker? Fortunately it's supposed to be 70s in
the days, and not below 50 at night the next for as far as my 10 day
forecast shows me.

Damn. It just came on again. The Tstat has been on Heat, Auto, and the
lever all the way back to 50 degrees this whole time (and the Thermometer
reads 71-72 in the house).

Could it be the thermostat? I've been pondering getting a digital anyway.
Or is this something to get the HVAC guy in for? It really ****es me off
that our heater had to have a service call the first year we owned the
house and we've already had to buy a new AC 8 years in. Now here's another
problem with an AC that's 1-2 years old. I'm sure I'll need shingles on
the roof next.

Ok, it's off now and I flipped the switch to off. Let's see if it actually
stays off.

Any help on this is much appreciated,

Thanks,
Steve

On Sun, 06 May 2007 03:47:36 GMT, "Steve Latham"
wrote:

We recently had a few 85 (and even 90) degree days here so I popped on the
A/C. It seemed to be running fine and cooling the house as usual. Then a
couple of days ago it got colder again, hovering in the mid 60s. At night, I
was pretty cold. I got up and noticed the thermometer on the thermostat was
about 10 degrees colder than the setting (not a digital) - but the A/C was
running.

Do you mean the fan in the house, or do you mean the compressor and
fan outsdie was also running. You say that that one night the house
was colder than the setting, but you don't say iiuc that that
continued to be true ever since then. I assumed that it was true, but
maybe shouldn't have.

It's been steady coming on and off as if it was cycling like it would be on
a hot day (let's say a day hot enough for it to come on every once in a
while instead of run constantly like when it's 95 outside). But there's no
real need for it to. So I bump up the thermostat to 85 or 90 or something to
get it to cut off and it doesn't - it's still coming on.

I turned the switch on the Tstat to Off (yes, the Fan is set to Auto, not
On) but it still runs! Yikes. I can turn it to heat and turn the heater to
50 degrees so it doesn't turn on and that seems to shut the thing down. -
Whoops, wait - Dammit - it just came on again - it seems that the blower fan
is coming on but the Heater's not on (it's still on 50).

Maybe the fan has just been running (cycling) but the A/C itself was only
turning on when it tripped - and just that fan air was enough to cool the
house down on those colder nights. But either way, if the fan is coming
n - OK, it' just turned off again - automatically when the thermostat is in
the Off position, something's obviously funky.

Should I flip the circuit breaker? Fortunately it's supposed to be 70s in
the days, and not below 50 at night the next for as far as my 10 day
forecast shows me.

Damn. It just came on again. The Tstat has been on Heat, Auto, and the lever
all the way back to 50 degrees this whole time (and the Thermometer reads
71-72 in the house).

Could it be the thermostat? I've been pondering getting a digital anyway.
Or is this something to get the HVAC guy in for? It really ****es me off
that our heater had to have a service call the first year we owned the house
and we've already had to buy a new AC 8 years in. Now here's another problem
with an AC that's 1-2 years old. I'm sure I'll need shingles on the roof
next.

Ok, it's off now and I flipped the switch to off. Let's see if it actually
stays off.

Any help on this is much appreciated,

Thanks,
Steve