[Shop-talk] Hot air furnace parasitic loss

[Steve Hammatt Mount Vernon WA USA]

PJ
Just a quick thought, but do you have an electrostatic air
cleaner in the duct work?

Steve Hammatt
Mount Vernon WA USA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "PJ McGarvey" <pj_mcgarvey at hotmail.com>
To: "Talk, Shop" <shop-talk at autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2008 4:37 PM
Subject: [Shop-talk] Hot air furnace parasitic loss


> I'm wondering if any of the guys here have tried measuring the 
> parasitic
> energy loss of their hot air furnace, since I know some of you have 
> those
> meters you can use to measure electricity usage.
>
> So I'm in the electrical panel this afternoon, and I noticed the 
> furnace
> breaker is on, so I turn it off since we're not running the heat 
> just yet.
> When I turn it off, I hear a buzzing sound stop, which is obviously 
> the heater
> which is 3 feet to my right.  Turn it back on, buzzing continues, 
> back off,
> buzzing stops.
>
> Now I'm not assuming that the heater of all things uses any power 
> when "off"
> like the way other electronic devices do, but is there even some 
> microscopic
> amount being used?  If so, add that up over the summer season, and 
> it could be
> worth making sure these things are off...
>
> FYI, I usually leave the breaker off until it's heating season, but 
> I think
> that the technician had left it on when he serviced it about a month 
> ago.
>
> Thanks,
> PJ
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