Unregistered

electric furnace need help

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I recently bought a home repo. The house has been empty for approx 1 year. It has an electric furnace (bryant) no heat pump. The temp. here is around 5 Degrees outside likewise inside. I had the power turned on yesterday and started the furnace around 4:00 P.M. when I went over this morning approx 10:00 A.M. 18 hours later the inside temp. was around 53 Degrees. So I called a service tech out. He checked it out and said everything working properly. I went back over tonight at Approx. 9:00 P.M. now 29 hours into operation the temp. is now 56 Degrees. This is the first electric furnace I have had. Does this sound like everythings working properly. how long does it take for an electric furnace to heat to 72 or 75 or78 Degrees? in the past I have always had natural gas and it never took this kind of time frame. any help is appreciated

Steve Wiggins

ummmm how long does it take to dig a hole? Kinda depends on if you are using a shovel or a backhoe and how big & deep the hole is. Electric heat can heat up a house just as fast or faster than gas. Sounds like you have a problem, either the house is too big for the heater or all the heating elements are not energizing.

Unregistered

Steve, thanks for taking time to reply. the house is 1914 sqft, the furnace is a Bryant it is approx. 25 years old. It has 3 heating elements and the service tech said it was a 15Kw does this sound right. He aslo said it looked like the the builder used the bare min. to get by on. the house is now at 70 Degrees however the heater has been runnig non stop for 56 hours now. I am going by what the service tech said (which is there is nothing wrong). I dont know much about HVAC but I do have 3 years electrical exp. and am a journeyman millwright. Is there any thing I can check on my own. Kevin (317) 791-6311

Bjd

The power co is going to loooove you, check the elements and thermostats inside just for *****s and giggles. You may have one or the other not operating.

When the tec went did he use an amp probe or just a wiggie to test the elements?

Bernie

Steve Wiggins

Using the formula Delta T = KW x 3412/cfm * 1.08

IF your kw is 15 and your air flow is 1200 cfm THEN you should get about a 40 degree temp rise across the heater (measure inlet and outlet temps with a thermometer reasonably close to the equipment). Make sure the outlet measurement is not in a direct line to the heating elements because the radient heat will throw off your measurement.

Measure the temp diff and report back.

Also give model number or width of unit to verify the approximate cfm. I used 1200 but it could be 1600 or somewhere in between.