For the second time in a couple weeks my geothermal system didn't seem to be able to keep up. The house was warm, particularly the great room.
A week or two ago the great room seemed warmer than usual. I feared my geothermal system was failing me. Normally it takes very little effort for it to cool the house. Turns out my Roomba played a trick on me by closing one of the floor vents. The little rascal. It's the second time I've caught him doing this. It was probably closed for weeks in the room we spend the most time in.
Today the situation was worse. The entire house was getting warm and the thermostat reported a heat pump failure. Why, why, why do these problems always seem to occur on the weekend? I was worried. Before I call the experts I thought I'd take a look at it myself.
There is a tray below the coils to collect moisture with a drain on one end. You are required to put condensate tablets in the tray to soak up the moisture. (I don't know why it just can't be made to drain better.) If the condensate tablets get used up the tray can fill with water and gunk and shut down the system.
I was concerned because I just put a couple of condensate tablets in not all that long ago so I figured it was something else. But it wasn't. The tablets were gone and the tray was filled with gunk including a pair of very large dead spiders. So I did a thorough cleaning job on the tray and drain, put in some new tablets and fired it back up.
Ahhh, relief. Disaster averted. Now If I can just keep an eye on that darn robot I should be okay for the rest of the cooling season.
A week or two ago the great room seemed warmer than usual. I feared my geothermal system was failing me. Normally it takes very little effort for it to cool the house. Turns out my Roomba played a trick on me by closing one of the floor vents. The little rascal. It's the second time I've caught him doing this. It was probably closed for weeks in the room we spend the most time in.
Today the situation was worse. The entire house was getting warm and the thermostat reported a heat pump failure. Why, why, why do these problems always seem to occur on the weekend? I was worried. Before I call the experts I thought I'd take a look at it myself.
There is a tray below the coils to collect moisture with a drain on one end. You are required to put condensate tablets in the tray to soak up the moisture. (I don't know why it just can't be made to drain better.) If the condensate tablets get used up the tray can fill with water and gunk and shut down the system.
I was concerned because I just put a couple of condensate tablets in not all that long ago so I figured it was something else. But it wasn't. The tablets were gone and the tray was filled with gunk including a pair of very large dead spiders. So I did a thorough cleaning job on the tray and drain, put in some new tablets and fired it back up.
Ahhh, relief. Disaster averted. Now If I can just keep an eye on that darn robot I should be okay for the rest of the cooling season.
