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Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott
 
Posts: n/a
Default Turbine in my furnace?

I've never had a house with air-conditioning before -- this is the
first. I notice that the furnace makes a considerable amount of noise,
of a type I am unfamiliar with. Maybe someone can help me understand
what's going on.

Physical Description of system: forced-air natural gas furnace of the
type I am used to seeing here in Southern California. It has air intake
in the bottom, and hot air comes out the top which goes through
sheet-metal ducting to registers throughout the house. Pretty normal so
far. But above this furnace is another sheet metal box that that round
ducting of the sort that Terry Gilliam put behind the walls in "Brazil"
snaking off somewhere. Outside the house is a 2' x 2' x 3' metal cage
with a circular grille on top and a fearsome-looking fan inside. I
reckon this is some kind of heat exchanger.

Description of noise: With a "normal" furnace I expect to hear the gas
valve open, a soft "whoosh" as the burner ignites and after some 30
seconds or so, the blower kicks in. With /this/ system, the moment I
turn on the heat there is this jet engine whine that starts immediately
and eminates from the furnace closet. The burner lights and after some
30 seconds, the blower turns on. What the heck is the jet engine whine?

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westphalia: "Mellow Yellow (The Electrical Banana)"
KG6RCR
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m Ransley
 
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Default

It sound like you have a high efficency condensing furnace, the whine is
a motor blowing the system clear.

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Edwin Pawlowski
 
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Default


"Bubba" wrote in message

A motor, blowing the system clear?
Ransley. Where do you come up with these terms?
I believe you are talking about a Draft Inducer venter motor. It
doesnt blow. It provides a negative pressure inside the heat
exchanger.
Is it a Tempstar, Keeprite, Heil, ICP furnace?
How about a model and serial number?
Bubba


I don't know about the draft inducer on a home heater, but I do know a
little about some gas fired boilers. Why is a negative pressure needed?

I'm licensed to operate high pressure steam boilers up to 300 horsepower.
Any time the boiler is started, the blower comes on and there is a purge
cycle. This is to clear the boiler and stack of any unburned gasses that
may be in there. On modern equipment this is programmed into the
controller, but on older systems it was done manually. Maybe Ransly knows
about some home models that are similar.


  #6   Report Post  
Bubba
 
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On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 18:11:29 -0800, "Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott"
et wrote:

On 12/20/2004 2:45 PM Bubba wrote:

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:30:12 -0600, (m Ransley)
wrote:


Is it a Tempstar, Keeprite, Heil, ICP furnace?
How about a model and serial number?
Bubba


Oh, I get it: making me /work/ for my free advice! Well, I can play that
game as well as anyone.

The furnace is labeled "Goodman Manufacturing Co," model GMP100-4 (rev B)

Mounted on the frontside, above the burners, is what appears to be a
squirrel-cage blower about 8'' across in an enclosure. The input side
faces into the furnace. This blower exits into a 5'' diameter round
metal (galvanized steel?) vent pipe that vanishes up into the ceiling of
the furnace closet.

When I turn on the heat, the sequence of events is:

WHIRRRRR (the turbine sound, comes from the squirrel-cage blower)
pause for 30 seconds
Tik-tik-tik (piezo starter)
"Whump" (gas ignites)
pause another minute or so
Vwoooooom (main furnace blower pumping air into the heating ducts)

After a short bit of time, the small 5'' duct gets hot. What do I have
here -- a furnace with a forced-air burner chamber exhaust? Never had
such a thing before.

Oh -- I forgot. In the morning, shortly following the "WHIRRRR" of the
small blower, you can hear the dead awakening and cursing the noise.


Now that helps a lot.
Oh, the free advice...............its not free.
hehe. You thought I was goina tell you for free what people pay me
for. Yur killin me man.....yur just killin me.
Bubba
  #7   Report Post  
Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott
 
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On 12/20/2004 8:27 PM Bubba wrote:

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 18:11:29 -0800, "Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott"
et wrote:


On 12/20/2004 2:45 PM Bubba wrote:


On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:30:12 -0600, (m Ransley)
wrote:


Is it a Tempstar, Keeprite, Heil, ICP furnace?
How about a model and serial number?
Bubba


Oh, I get it: making me /work/ for my free advice! Well, I can play that
game as well as anyone.

The furnace is labeled "Goodman Manufacturing Co," model GMP100-4 (rev B)

Mounted on the frontside, above the burners, is what appears to be a
squirrel-cage blower about 8'' across in an enclosure. The input side
faces into the furnace. This blower exits into a 5'' diameter round
metal (galvanized steel?) vent pipe that vanishes up into the ceiling of
the furnace closet.

When I turn on the heat, the sequence of events is:

WHIRRRRR (the turbine sound, comes from the squirrel-cage blower)
pause for 30 seconds
Tik-tik-tik (piezo starter)
"Whump" (gas ignites)
pause another minute or so
Vwoooooom (main furnace blower pumping air into the heating ducts)

After a short bit of time, the small 5'' duct gets hot. What do I have
here -- a furnace with a forced-air burner chamber exhaust? Never had
such a thing before.

Oh -- I forgot. In the morning, shortly following the "WHIRRRR" of the
small blower, you can hear the dead awakening and cursing the noise.



Now that helps a lot.
Oh, the free advice...............its not free.
hehe. You thought I was goina tell you for free what people pay me
for. Yur killin me man.....yur just killin me.


All right -- you outsmarted me. Go ahead, hold on to your darn advice.
See if I care.

sniffle

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westphalia: "Mellow Yellow (The Electrical Banana)"
KG6RCR
  #8   Report Post  
m Ransley
 
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Default

Bubba what the He## are you doing here if it is not for free helping
advise? Your advise is worth nothing -zip-nada,as it benefits no one on
this thread. You are worse than Dave or Stormin in this area, at least
they try.
Is it a motor blowing- blower motor- motor with blower-inducer-inducer
blower- blower- . In the context of OPs question they are equal in my
opinion.

  #9   Report Post  
George E. Cawthon
 
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Default

Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott wrote:
On 12/20/2004 2:45 PM Bubba wrote:

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:30:12 -0600, (m Ransley)
wrote:



Is it a Tempstar, Keeprite, Heil, ICP furnace?
How about a model and serial number?
Bubba



Oh, I get it: making me /work/ for my free advice! Well, I can play that
game as well as anyone.

The furnace is labeled "Goodman Manufacturing Co," model GMP100-4 (rev B)

Mounted on the frontside, above the burners, is what appears to be a
squirrel-cage blower about 8'' across in an enclosure. The input side
faces into the furnace. This blower exits into a 5'' diameter round
metal (galvanized steel?) vent pipe that vanishes up into the ceiling of
the furnace closet.

When I turn on the heat, the sequence of events is:

WHIRRRRR (the turbine sound, comes from the squirrel-cage blower)
pause for 30 seconds
Tik-tik-tik (piezo starter)
"Whump" (gas ignites)
pause another minute or so
Vwoooooom (main furnace blower pumping air into the heating ducts)

After a short bit of time, the small 5'' duct gets hot. What do I have
here -- a furnace with a forced-air burner chamber exhaust? Never had
such a thing before.

Oh -- I forgot. In the morning, shortly following the "WHIRRRR" of the
small blower, you can hear the dead awakening and cursing the noise.


Yep, it is the inducer fan, induces a flow of air through
the burn chamber and up the chimney. Somebody did a very
poor seal around that fan in my furnace and it caused the
furnace to not operate correctly. (A safety feature is a
pressure switch that needs a negative pressure to operate
and maintain the burn). Just hope you never have to replace
the little, noisy SOB. They will cost you upwards of $300.
Glad I don't have a high efficiency water heater too.
Sounds like you have an exceptionally noise furnace. The
burner on mine makes way more noise than the inducer fan or
the distribution fan. It is probably normal for your
furnace. A few kinks (of the sound trapping kind)in your
air system might be able to reduce noise distribution from
your furnace.
  #10   Report Post  
Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott
 
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Default

On 12/20/2004 10:27 PM George E. Cawthon wrote:

Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott wrote:

On 12/20/2004 2:45 PM Bubba wrote:

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:30:12 -0600, (m Ransley)
wrote:




Is it a Tempstar, Keeprite, Heil, ICP furnace?
How about a model and serial number?
Bubba




Oh, I get it: making me /work/ for my free advice! Well, I can play
that game as well as anyone.

The furnace is labeled "Goodman Manufacturing Co," model GMP100-4 (rev B)

Mounted on the frontside, above the burners, is what appears to be a
squirrel-cage blower about 8'' across in an enclosure. The input side
faces into the furnace. This blower exits into a 5'' diameter round
metal (galvanized steel?) vent pipe that vanishes up into the ceiling
of the furnace closet.

When I turn on the heat, the sequence of events is:

WHIRRRRR (the turbine sound, comes from the squirrel-cage blower)
pause for 30 seconds
Tik-tik-tik (piezo starter)
"Whump" (gas ignites)
pause another minute or so
Vwoooooom (main furnace blower pumping air into the heating ducts)

After a short bit of time, the small 5'' duct gets hot. What do I have
here -- a furnace with a forced-air burner chamber exhaust? Never had
such a thing before.

Oh -- I forgot. In the morning, shortly following the "WHIRRRR" of the
small blower, you can hear the dead awakening and cursing the noise.


Yep, it is the inducer fan, induces a flow of air through the burn
chamber and up the chimney.


I've never had a furnace with an inducer fan. Was I just lucky? How does
an inducer fan affect the performance of a furnace? I mean -- why the
frick would someone want to mount such a noisy little bugger onto an
applicance which up until now I considered a fairly quiet device?

Sounds like you have an
exceptionally noise furnace. The burner on mine makes way more noise
than the inducer fan or the distribution fan. It is probably normal for
your furnace. A few kinks (of the sound trapping kind)in your air
system might be able to reduce noise distribution from your furnace.


The inducer fan's noise is not audible through the ducting. It comes
right out of the closet. Which has a louvered door. Exactly NOT the kind
of door I'd choose to use for sound-isolating.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westphalia: "Mellow Yellow (The Electrical Banana)"
KG6RCR
------------------------------------
Today's Deep Thought:

"Hey, dad, remember our car?"
-- Calvin
------------------------------------


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