No heat at our house in 2 wks, unlikely for a while UPDATE 1/20

[JennsPeeps]

Thank goodness for space heaters and a fireplace.

We've got a natural gas boiler under our house. It's been nothing but problem after problem after problem ever since I bought this house. I love having radiant heat instead of forced air, but recently the valve that controls the gas flow seems to be faulty. DBF crawled under the house this weekend and called from the crawl space (I was in the kitchen) in a panic to tell me to turn off the heat from inside the house: the pilot light was 8-10" high!

So, we turned off the heat on Sunday evening and have been relying on space heaters and the old fireplace. This stinks! The living room got up to 64 but the bedrooms are in the 50s. What's worse is that we don't have the funds to pay someone to fix it.

DBF was supposed to have called someone today. The local boiler repair guy has told me he dislikes going under houses... who could blame him. I'm hopeful that the boiler guy will be willing to basically do a consultation over the phone rather than charge us to crawl under our house, which he hates doing.

Send me "FREE/CHEAP" vibes (and warm ones, too).

 

[willowcol]

So sorry you are having heating problems, am sending you warm fuzzy vibes. Get you an electric blanket and, a hot beverage. Hope the guy helps you out!

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

OH my! Not a fun thing especially when everyone seems much colder than they normally are this week! Sending warm vibes your way! Good luck getting it fixed.

 

[English Chick]

warm vibes and a hot water bottle..........hope you manage to get it fixed soon.....

 

[hoosier]

Poor you.

I hope you get it fixed soon.

Be careful - I would be freaking out with a gas furnace that wasn't working properly. (childhood memories creeping in..)

 

[OPIE]

Put a wood stove insert into your fireplace and you wont need that costly boiler anymore..

 

[JennsPeeps]

We would LOVE a wood stove insert.. but these things cost money.

 

[Queen Scoot]

sends you warm wishes and blankies! LOL

 

[ranchhand]

Oh, I am sorry for you! It gets much colder there, and I would be miserable without heat! We're running on our heatpump emergency strips since the compressor is making a horrid racket. Just finished stacking a load of firewood, too. I can relate to the lack of $$, big-time!

I am sending LOTS of warm, sunshiney vibes your way!

 

[JennsPeeps]

UPDATE...

Sadly, the "free/cheap" vibes you've been sending me were unsuccessful. The chimney into which the boiler vents is sooted up, which has backed up the flue for the boiler. The boiler plates are all blocked up. In addition, the boiler has been leaking carbon monoxide into the crawl space. We're lucky it didn't burn our house down or asphixiate us.

To fix the problem, we have our choice of 1 of 3 expensive fixes, in roughly this order of preference:

1. Clean the boiler plates and move the boiler to inside the house.
2. Get a new boiler... inside the house.
3. Clean the boiler plates, leave it in place, and line the chimney. This option is the least preferable b/c the problem will eventually happen again.

The repair guy is willing to reduce his hourly rate by 1/3 if DBF helps him with the labor. That would reduce the labor costs from ~$900 to about $600. I suspect that DBF will probably do most of the work and essentially have the boiler guy inspect it.

I'm seriously bummed.