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Heat Pump control problems, Review and Update
The info in this message is offered in the hopes that it might be
helpful to someone else with a problem similar to mine. My earlier messages on this topic were posted on 5/21/04 (Heat Pump Performance Questions), and 6/2/04 (More Heat Pump Questions). In summary, the performance at that time had become very erratic and unpredictable (refer to original post), and my daily power usage had climbed to an average of 103 KWH per day for the four days in May when the erratic performance was first noticed. The company that installed the system in 1998 sent (at my request) a service technician who judged the system to be "working normally". It was at this time that I began to monitor my power usage on a daily basis and discovered the abnormally high usage. Suspecting that the T-stat might be responsible for the erratic performance, I decided to at least inspect its' wiring connections. (The system is a Carrier Heat Pump, and the T-stat is also a Carrier unit - digital, but non-programmable.) The T-stat is mounted by a hinge to a base that is attached to the wall, where swinging the T-stat away from the wall disengages several pins from a mating socket and totally disconnects the stat from the system. After going through this procedure one time (disengaging and re-engaging the pins with the mating socket), the system performance abruptly became normal and predictable. At the same time, our power usage dropped from 103 KWH/day average (during the erratic performance period) to less than 40 KWH/day average for the months of June, July, and 1/3 of August (in Central Florida). I may be wrong, but until something better comes along, my theory is that a faulty contact between pin(s) and socket may have resulted in inconsistent actuation of the reversing valve in the system, and that the friction of momentarily breaking and re-making this connection has at least for now resulted in a 'good' contact. It seems to me that this could explain both the warm air we experienced many times while in the cooling mode, and the much higher than normal power usage observed during the erratic performance period. Any different theories and/or comments will be welcomed. Thank you. Replace deadspam with yahoo to reply. |