Month: November 2013

School of Life – Furnace Igniter

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I do not remember where I first heard the saying, “The School of Life” but I find that it is very true.  You see, the school of life charges tuition.  Whether that tuition is in the form of money or time, each mistake we make or uninformed decision has the potential to enroll us in the School of Life.  The best way to avoid hefty tuition charges, is to learn from other people’s mistakes and life lessons.  In the School of Life series, I will be sharing some of my mistakes so that you may learn from them.

Murphy’s Law

[blockquote]Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.[/blockquote]

Around the middle of October I decided that it would be a good idea to have our furnace tuned up.  We have a forced air gas furnace that was installed circa 2001.  While it did provide hot air when I turned it on, a tune-up coupon and the thought of three years of vacant house prompted me to call in a local HVAC company.  On the scheduled day, the technician came out and gave the unit a once over.  She made several repair suggestions such as removing the broken attached humidifier, replacing the flue exhaust pipes, and replacing a leaky drainage condensate hose.  All of these repairs were in the range of my DIY capabilities so I declined the $95/hr + materials work and over the next couple of days made the repairs in my free time.  I learned a bit about furnaces (tip for readers, always ask lots of questions when a tradesman visits your house) and our furnace was given a clean bill of health.  In short, all was well.

Fast forward a month and Shae mentions to me that the house feels colder than usual (our programmable thermostat varies the temperature between 60-64° depending on the time of day).  I look at the thermostat and it reads 57° in the middle of the day on a Saturday.  Something is wrong.

I headed down into the basement to take a look at the furnace.  My four years of college education basically boils down to how to take a big problem and break it up into a bunch of little problems.  The big problem was that the furnace wasn’t making hot air.  Commence troubleshooting.

  1. Has the electrical breaker tripped?  No. ✓
  2. Is the electrical switch on the side of the furnace in the ‘On’ position?  Yes. ✓
  3. Is the thermostat set to “Heat”?  Yes. ✓
  4. Is the gas valve in the “On” position?  Yes. ✓
  5. Does the furnace blower start?  Yes. ✓
  6. Does gas start to flow to the furnace?  Yes. ✓
  7. Does the auto igniter light the gas?  No.  ✗

With very little knowledge of how a furnace actually works.  I was able to deduce that the part responsible for lighting the gas on fire was not functioning properly.  Some gas furnaces use a pilot light, a flame that continuously burns 24/7 and needs to be manually lit at the start of each heating season.  Our furnace and most furnaces manufactured in the last decade have done away from pilot lights because they are not as energy efficient as lighting the gas on demand.

What I didn’t know, was where the igniter was located in the furnace cabinet, what the replacement part was, or where I could purchase said replacement part.  It was a Saturday with about 2 hours of daylight left before the temperatures would start falling very quickly.  Time to call the HVAC company and pay some tuition at the school of life.

$230 and 5 minutes of technician time later and our furnace was once again a roaring inferno.

GlowFly Igniter

Here is what I learned.

  1. An ignitor can be changed in less than 5 minutes with only a screw driver and a socket wrench (to take off the burner box door).
  2. The ignitor is located in the burner box (it usually has 1 or 2 little windows that you can see the burners firing)
  3. The flame sensor is also located in the burner box and can be cleaned and reinstalled at the same time.
  4. None of the big box home improvement stores (Lowes, Home Depot, or Menards) carry ignitors in stock, at least in our area.
  5. Ignitors have a lifespan of 3-5 years, meaning that you’ll likely go through multiple during the lifespan of your furnace.
  6. The $113 replacement part on the invoice is a markup of nearly 400%.
  7. PexSupply.com carries a variety of ignitors at reasonable prices.

I have already ordered and received a igniter replacement part for the next time that the furnace stops working.  With Murphy’s Law, that will most likely happen during a -20° ice storm right after a sharknado strikes town.

I hope my little story helps save someone else some tuition expense.  What is a recent goof that you made that others could learn from?

What’s For Dinner? 11/17/2013

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Every week I will share our meal plan for the coming week.  Making your own food is a great way to save money, explore new cuisine, and eat healthy (if you choose to make healthy foods).  A good meal helps bring people together and as you improve your cooking skills you will impress more and more people!   I generally use recipes as a starting off point and then experiment with different proportions or ingredients.  Leftovers make great lunches for the 9-5 crowd who might otherwise have to decide between a sandwich or a pricey cafeteria.

This Week For Dinner…

Meatball Nirvana w/ steamed corn and garlic bread

Meatball NirvanaWhile planning meals for this week, meatballs sounded fulfilling.  Usually, I try to cook them on the stovetop and it always ends in disappointment.  This time, I followed a baked recipe and was very pleased with the results.  I didn’t dice my onion quite well enough but other than that, these were some of the best meatballs I have ever made.

Balsamic Roasted Pork Loin

Here is a new recipe for us to try out.  I will probably pair it with mashed potatoes and some kind of green vegetable to add color to the dish.

Baked Teriyaki Chicken

My first reaction when hearing about this recipe was to serve it with white rice, but I think noodles, in particular Lo Mein, would actually go better with it.

Snack Food…

Homemade Cheese ball, Apples, and Bananas

Grab some crackers and cut off a bit of a cheese ball and voila, perfect snack food.  The only problem is that store packaged cheese balls around here are expensive.  For example, Kroger offers a 10 oz version for $4 and that is when it is on sale!  Tonight we tried making our own for the very first time.  We didn’t bother trying to form it into a ball and decoratively coat it with nuts like the picture so elegantly displays.  Ours is more of a dip/spread sitting in the mixing bowl.  What it lacks in appearance, it makes up for in cost competitiveness.  After taste testing, the cream cheese to cheese ratio seems a bit high.

Low Flow Aerators

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I know I missed the What’s for Dinner this week.  We started a new home improvement project and I have been busy with ‘work work’.  Here is something that I haven’t gotten around to writing about.

A few months ago there was a little blurb on our gas bill offering a free energy saving kit.  I looked up the details and our gas company was offering a low flow shower head, 2 faucet aerators, and a small roll of plumber’s tape to all of their customers.  You may be wondering why the gas utility company would be giving away items that would help people reduce the amount of gas they use.  The gas company after all sells gas, right?  Not quite.  Nicor, our gas company, just like Ameren, our electric company, provide distribution of natural gas and electricity.  They don’t actually produce the commodity they just deliver it to your home.  The more usage the delivery network gets, the more wear and tear happens and that costs them money.  By helping customers reduce their usage, they can save some money themselves.

A month or so after I set in the request for a kit I got this small box in the mail.

Energy KitOpening it revealed the contents.

Energy Savings Kit

We had already purchased a 1.5 GPM (Gallons per minute) shower head when we moved in that is *almost* identical to the one included in this kit.  Each of the two faucet aerators are 1 GPM and the kitchen aerator is 1.5 GPM.  I was really happy to receive the aerators because our bathroom faucet aerator was broken and our kitchen one was kind of dingy.

Shae was able to install the new aerators herself.  She didn’t even need the included plumbers tape according to the instructions pamphlet (the aerators have built in rubber gaskets).  Our sinks now use half the water as they did before.

This kind of project probably won’t have a noticeable impact on our gas or water bill but every little bit does help.  Thankfully in the Midwest, water is plentiful and we often don’t think about using it sparingly.  My sister and her family live in the American South West where the presence, or lack thereof, can make or break entire lifestyles.

Every time I check our water usage I get a little reminder that it takes an entire group of people to conserve resources.  Our water usage chart includes data from previous owners.  I highlighted in green the months that we have lived in the house.  All of the other data is from previous owners or when the house sat empty.  The numbers are cubic feet of water used.  You can get gallons by multiplying by 7.48.  So the 1800 cubit feet of water used by previous owners in July of 2005 equals over 13k gallons of water that month or about 450 gallons per day!  We have been averaging about 70 gallons per day or 35 gallons per person.

water usage

I am looking to conserve even more water by replacing our 3.5 GPF toilets with modern low flow varieties.  That is a post for another day though.  Do you know how many gallons your household uses in a month?  How about per person?  According to the USGS, the average person uses between 80-100 gallons per day.

If you’d like to learn more about the Nicor Energy Efficiency Program you can do so here.

What’s For Dinner? 11/3/2013

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Every week I will share our meal plan for the coming week.  Making your own food is a great way to save money, explore new cuisine, and eat healthy (if you choose to make healthy foods).  A good meal helps bring people together and as you improve your cooking skills you will impress more and more people!   I generally use recipes as a starting off point and then experiment with different proportions or ingredients.  Leftovers make great lunches for the 9-5 crowd who might otherwise have to decide between a sandwich or a pricey cafeteria.

This Week For Dinner…

Cavatini with Apple Pie å la mode

Cavatini

 

This was the recipe I was thinking of last week.  If you like pizza you’ll love this casserole because it is essentially pizza casserole.

3 c uncooked pasta (tri-color rotini or something with lots of surface area for sauce)
4 oz sliced mushrooms
4 oz sliced and quartered pepperoni (a stick/log not the pre-sliced stuff)
1/2 c black olives sliced
3/4 c sliced green pepper
1 med onion chopped
15 oz spagetti sauce
6 oz tomato paste
8 oz tomato sauce
1 c shredded cheese (any variety of your choosing)
Cook and drain the pasta. Add all other ingredients to the pasta and combine well. Throw into a casserole dish and cover with foil. Bake until bubbling @ 350 degrees ~ 20-30 min. Remove foil and top with 2 c shredded mozzarella. Return to oven and bake until cheese is melted.
Shae made a special Apple pie for me as dessert.  I do love apple pie!
Tuna Salad

This basic noodle, tuna, mayo, and relish dish is a breeze to make.  It can really hit the spot sometimes as well.  If you find it too bland or boring it is easy to add spices or ingredients to kick it up a notch.

Sausage & Sauerkraut with Pierogis

Here is another uber simple recipe.  Slice up 2-4 ropes of sausage and throw into a pan.  Add a jar or bag of sauerkraut and heat up.  If you’d like to make a more advanced version, then add bits of bacon, apples, and some brown sugar to the mixture.  Serve the whole thing piping hot with your lederhosen on.  Pierogis make a nice side dish.  Steamed peas add some color and nutrition to round out the meal.  What is your favorite homemade ethnic food?

Shrimp Po Boys with Tater Tots and steamed veggies

This is a new dish that we have never made before.  I have not decided on a specific recipe to follow but there are several if you search the internet.  This Louisiana staple is made or broken by quality bread.  At least that is what I gathered from reading online sources.  Hopefully our 79¢ manager’s special Hoagie Rolls pass the mustard.

Snack Food…

Crackers & Cheese, Cottage Cheese, Bananas

Bananas are 59¢/lb at our local grocery store.  Cottage cheese is still a popular craving in the household.  Bagels have also been making an appearance to hold over empty stomachs until mealtime.