In the continuing saga of our heating system, the service technician came to our house the other day. He called me at work to chide me for not switching the system to ‘emergency heat’ when the furnace refused to come on. Silly me, I assumed that if the thermostat was calling for the furnace to provide auxiliary heat, and the furnace wasn’t coming on, that switching to emergency heat would be pointless. No, the service tech told me, that’s always the FIRST thing you should do.

The service tech found a loose wire in the fossil fuel kit, and repaired it. All covered by the warranty. All is right as rain.

Except last night the heat went out again. The thermostat was dead. I checked the fuse (now that I know what it looks like) and it was blown. So, I made a quick trip to Fred Meyer, where they had exactly ONE 5 amp fuse in a kit with six other fuses of various capacities. I bought the whole kit, went home, and swapped the requisite fuse out. Et voila, we had heat.

Except the thermostat kept clicking loudly. Just as it did the last time it failed.

Sure enough, this morning when the house should have already warmed up to the setpoint of 67 F, it was still a chilly 61 degrees. Remembering the wisdom of the service tech, I switched the system to ‘emergency heat’. Sure enough, in just a few moments, warm air was blowing from the vents, and the house was warming right up.

Nevertheless, we continue to blow fuses, and apparently the heat pump is refusing to come on when asked, which keeps the furnace from coming on as backup. The clicking noise from the thermostat is driving my daughter nuts and waking her up at night, and I dislike waking up to a cold house.

I tire of this.