oil furnace only works on emergency heat


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Old 03-24-16, 09:14 PM
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oil furnace only works on emergency heat

Hey im having trouble with my oil heater only working on emergency heat. It work last year in the spring. During the fall when i turned it back on it only works on emergency heat. I can see it burning when its on, but only in emergency heat mode. If i put it on regular heat the fan will kick on but that is all. Does any one know why this would happen? The furnace is a metzger T167-10A, the thermostat is a honeywell TH8000.
 
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Old 03-24-16, 09:22 PM
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Welcome to the forums.

It was working ok and just started doing this..... no wiring changes made ?

If the stat says emergency heat and the oil burning furnace is running..... the stat is not wired correctly.

Can you take the stat off the back plate and tell me what color wires are on what terminals ?
 
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Old 03-25-16, 09:55 AM
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Thanks PJ
no wires have been moved or changed. The only change was that I replaced the condensation pump, however, that was after the fact and shouldn't effect the system in this way as far as i am aware.

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Old 03-25-16, 12:23 PM
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This looks like a heat pump and an oil furnace setup. Is that correct ?
That would mean dual fuel and the oil burner would be emergency heat.
 
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Old 03-25-16, 01:48 PM
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I have a heat pump for cooling, and oil for heating. Only one fuel line going from the tank to the furnace.
 
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Old 03-25-16, 03:56 PM
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I'm still trying to piece this all together. You have a heatpump but it is not used for heat.... at all ? This is very important.

Your thermostat is programmed for a heat pump. It knows to turn on the heat pump for the first stage of heat. If that can't keep up.... then the oil is called on. Stage two or emergency heat.

Your heat pump could be setup as an A/C only and not supply any heat but that may be a little tricky to program.

As I see it based on wiring..... your oil is set up as aux/emergency heat.

R - red
O/B - blue
Y - yellow
G - green
C - black
Aux/E - white
S1 & S2 - orange and brown. Sensor line used to tell the heat pump when not to make heat.

We may need to go in and look at the advance programming and see how it was set up.
Can you post the thermostat model number ?
 
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Old 03-26-16, 11:05 PM
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I know this is probably a silly question, but how would I find out if the heat pump is used for heat?
 
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Old 03-27-16, 12:07 AM
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Was the outside unit running in the winter ? If yes.... the heat pump was supplying heat.

If you're not sure.... put stat in heat mode and set temperature two degrees above what it says room temperature is on the stat. Check the outside unit.
 

Last edited by PJmax; 03-28-16 at 03:25 PM. Reason: typo
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Old 03-27-16, 04:02 PM
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Depending upon how the stat is configured, two degrees might bring on the aux (oil burner) heat & shut down the pump. I suggest trying one degree above room temp. Again, it all depends on how the stat is configured. Those 8000 series stats are nice but can be confusing when it comes to setting them up.
 
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Old 03-28-16, 02:51 PM
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When i turned it up, the furnace only kicked on. This is in emergency heat though
 
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Old 03-28-16, 03:26 PM
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You need to work with us here..... did you put the stat just one degree above room temp. ?
 
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Old 03-28-16, 03:41 PM
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Yep 1degree, furnace kicks on no problem, nothing going on on the outside unit
 
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Old 03-28-16, 05:00 PM
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Try leaving it in "heat" (not emergency heat), set the stat one degree above room temp & tell us what happens with the outdoor unit. If it comes on, quickly set the stat TWO degrees above room temp & recheck the outdoor unit.

When in "emergency heat" I would expect only the oil fired furnace to run.
 
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Old 03-28-16, 05:29 PM
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On regular heat i set it to 73, room temp is 72. The thermostat says heat on and the fan kicks on and stays on. After a while the furnace kicks on and the thermostat says aux heat. It stays on for a short time then shuts off. The temp in the house is now 71. It still says heat on with the fan on but nothing else. The outside unite has done nothing this whole time.
 
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Old 03-28-16, 06:28 PM
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It seems as if there is a problem with the outdoor unit. Could be any of several things.
This may sound basic but have you checked the breakers to the outdoor unit?
Do you have a volt meter & know how to use it?

Pete: Your thoughts?
 
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Old 03-28-16, 07:17 PM
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I checked the power in the unit and its getting 2 legs of 120 VAC
 
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Old 03-28-16, 07:52 PM
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When checking for 240 VAC, you need to measure across the two hot legs. As strange as it may seem, you can have 120 from each leg to ground & zero across the two hots. If you find zero volts across the two hot legs, you have one side with no voltage.
 
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Old 03-28-16, 08:59 PM
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It's very possible to have lost the 240v.

I'm still thinking about the programming of the stat. It does have the outdoor sensor wires connected for heat pump shutdown below a certain temp. We may need to go thru the programming step to see if something has changed.

Check for the 240vac first.
See if the system works in A/C mode too.
 
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Old 03-28-16, 10:02 PM
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Just talked to a frien who confirmed the outside unit is a dedicated ac unit.programing the stat is going to be the best tging to look at
 
 

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