Introduction
There is truly nothing I can do to make maintenance interesting. LOL The information provided here is more for me than you because my memory is not what it used to be and I find that writing it down means we all know when to do maintenance and when maintenance/repairs have occurred.
I imagine you are visiting this page for the first time and don't expect that you are aware of our adventure getting the geothermal heating and cooling system for our Greenovation in 2011. That page was transferred to a PDF and is available to read from the Archived Webpages in Adobe Reader File (PDF) Format in the Merchandise Section. Or just Click Here to Open it in a New Window.
All HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) systems should be monitored/serviced regularly: at least once a year. Our service provider (the company that installed the system) provided a yearly service at no additional cost through the warranty period.
Filters should be checked monthly and replaced when they get filled with dust (because a dust filled filter blocks the oh-so-important air flow to your equipment and that can cause your equipment to be less efficient, less effective and/or fail.
We had two (2) big, hairy dogs when the system was installed and that created dust requiring the filter on our system to be replaced every three (3) months. We currently are down to one (1) indoor/outdoor cat and that means our filter is good for four (4) months. Our system requires custom filters so we order a case of six (6) at a time.
Parts can fail in between your yearly service intervals through no fault of your service provider. Sometimes that is hard to believe when it happens shortly after their yearly visit, but 99% of the time it isn't because of anything done by the technician.
2022
Our system was just over ten (10) years old in July 2022 when we experienced our first major part failure. We noticed that the air conditioning was substandard so called our service provider to investigate why. One of the computer boards had a short circuit and the technician could say how long it had been like that. Anyway, the system was out of warranty so we had to pay for both the part and labor. Not surprisingly, the stress to the system for the unknown time it had been compensating for the short circuit caused another part to give out within a couple weeks. It was working when the initial part was replaced so there had been no reason to replace it. The technician returned, determined the problem and fixed it. The 2022 repairs cost us about $1400. When you figure we had no expenses (beyond filters) in those 10 years, the cost was quite reasonable.
2024
Our yearly service occurred in October and everything looked fine. In December, we had one of those Artic Blasts and the system was unable to keep the house at our usual 65 degrees Fahrenheit even with the auxiliary heat strips engaged. We ended up using the wood stove insert in our fireplace to heat the core of the house and with doors open and fans moving the air, we were able to keep the house at around 55 degrees. The next day, our technician came out and tried several things and thought he had gotten it fixed. The cost for this was just the service call.
Unfortunately, a week later the same problem occurred and, thankfully, Hubby took video and still photos of the computer board and it's lights. Armed with that information during the problem, the technician was able to determine that the connection with the original thermostat was causing conflicting information. It is amazing that this problem had not happened before -- could it have something to do with the replaced circuit board in 2022? Unknown. The solution was a temporary fix until the new thermostat arrived (about a week later). Hubby has electrical experience and did the preliminary work of running the length of prescribed wire from the location of the old thermostat to the geothermal system with the blessing of our technician. (Which saved us about $500.) The new thermostat is a 'smart' one and uses an app in addition to the controls on the equipment. The cost this time was the service call plus the price of the new thermostat.
We were not charged for the trip to do the actual install of the thermostat. Our technician spent quite a bit of time with Hubby getting everything set up.
We had another artic blast a couple of weeks later and once again the system wasn't holding temperature. This time Hubby was able to work with the technician via phone because they could each see the information the app provided. It ended up that there were a couple of advanced settings that had not been done correctly and there was no charge for the exchange. Hubby has learned a great deal about the thermostat and even found that it has a way to only engage the auxiliary heat strips when the outside temperature is below the temperature you select (in our case 10 degrees Fahrenheit). We no longer have to manually turn off the circuit breaker at the service panel to keep the auxiliary heat strips from engaging. What a relief that is!
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