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Weather Report II
It's not just the snow -- we had that yesterday morning, and it lasted for at least two hours, heavy at times. No, the cold weather has arrived as well. Yesterday -- and again today -- I dragged out my silk thermal tights (I guess you can't call them underpants, even if indeed they go under your pants). I mean, temperature in the 30s, stiff wind, long walk... time to call out the reinforcements, you know?
And, unfortunately, a problem that we had with the furnace last year has resurfaced. When I got home yesterday -- and then again, today -- the furnace pilot light had gone out, meaning that it wasn't turning on when the house temperature dropped, so I came home to a cool (and cooling) house both nights running.
We have a formidable "snowman" style furnace boiler downstairs, a big cavernous monster (clad in asbestos) that you have to open a little door into, and reach a fair ways in and down to light the pilot (while holding down a priming switch to make the gas feed override the thermocouple that tells the gas to shut off if the pilot area has dropped below the burn point). It makes me kind of nervous, because you're reaching right through the area where huge licking blue flames will be burning once the furnace has lit up fully.
Unfortunately, lighting it with a match is also nerve-wracking because the pilot flame is pretty big by itself. I want to wear a big oven mitt when I do it, which is really awkward with a match. I had been getting around it by clamping the cold end of the lit match in kitchen tongs, and holding that in the mitt, but it's rather awkward.
Then today I got a bright idea, and went over to Brookstone and bought a neat little solar-powered gas lighter (for grills and stuff) -- that's much more easy to handle with the mitt on, and I might even try it without the mitt, since it keeps my scorchable little fingers well away from the ring of death.
How glad was I when I got home and discovered that, yes, the furnace had gone out again? So I got to try out my new lighter almost immediately....
Anyway, the furnace shenanigans are annoying. Last year I had my plumber -- who also does furnaces that use forced hot water -- take a look at the situation, since it went out a handful of times, and he couldn't come up with a reason that the pilot goes out like that. It doesn't always happen -- it seems to be a flue thing, when the wind is in a certain direction we get a bad downdraft, maybe.
Note that IN FACT, my pilot light remained on all through the summer since it fired up the first time I turned it on, what, two weeks ago or so? So what is going on here, I don't know, and it will be interesting to see how it goes in the next couple of weeks....
And, unfortunately, a problem that we had with the furnace last year has resurfaced. When I got home yesterday -- and then again, today -- the furnace pilot light had gone out, meaning that it wasn't turning on when the house temperature dropped, so I came home to a cool (and cooling) house both nights running.
We have a formidable "snowman" style furnace boiler downstairs, a big cavernous monster (clad in asbestos) that you have to open a little door into, and reach a fair ways in and down to light the pilot (while holding down a priming switch to make the gas feed override the thermocouple that tells the gas to shut off if the pilot area has dropped below the burn point). It makes me kind of nervous, because you're reaching right through the area where huge licking blue flames will be burning once the furnace has lit up fully.
Unfortunately, lighting it with a match is also nerve-wracking because the pilot flame is pretty big by itself. I want to wear a big oven mitt when I do it, which is really awkward with a match. I had been getting around it by clamping the cold end of the lit match in kitchen tongs, and holding that in the mitt, but it's rather awkward.
Then today I got a bright idea, and went over to Brookstone and bought a neat little solar-powered gas lighter (for grills and stuff) -- that's much more easy to handle with the mitt on, and I might even try it without the mitt, since it keeps my scorchable little fingers well away from the ring of death.
How glad was I when I got home and discovered that, yes, the furnace had gone out again? So I got to try out my new lighter almost immediately....
Anyway, the furnace shenanigans are annoying. Last year I had my plumber -- who also does furnaces that use forced hot water -- take a look at the situation, since it went out a handful of times, and he couldn't come up with a reason that the pilot goes out like that. It doesn't always happen -- it seems to be a flue thing, when the wind is in a certain direction we get a bad downdraft, maybe.
Note that IN FACT, my pilot light remained on all through the summer since it fired up the first time I turned it on, what, two weeks ago or so? So what is going on here, I don't know, and it will be interesting to see how it goes in the next couple of weeks....
no subject
cooking with gas!
Re: cooking with gas!
no subject
(And how did Somerville get actual snowfall when the Berkshires got nothing? The hell?)
I used to rent a place with a wonky furnace -- there was no real basement, though, just a door on the back leading to the storage room -- the cabin was on a hill. It was so much fun to come home from 8+ hours of working outside, take off boots, coat, gloves, etc., then have to put it all back on and trudge down a steep incline, clear the snow away from the door, and push a stupid little red "reset" button. Dunno what I would have done if I'd had to fumble around with matches... I'm pretty sure it was electric heat.
yep, snow!
Yeah, we got about two hours worth of snowfall on Thursday morning! It didn't stick here, but a friend out near Worcester had about 3 inches worth!
Oh dear, that sounds just dreadful with the outside door to the furnace in all sorts of bad weather. What a stupid idea!