Electrical Issues Continued…

My last post was all about our electrical issues and the ‘visit’ to our home by the Tellico Village Fire Department.  We’d called them because we wanted to be sure that nothing was burning in the walls and just to find out what had caused our problem… As per their conclusion, it was all about the coffee maker which was definitely fried.  

But…about 2 days later, Laurie looked at the thermostat that controls our dual fuel (electric and propane) HVAC unit for the main part of the house.  As you can see, it was blank…out of commission!  It is mounted on the wall closest to the coffee maker.

The next step was to call the electrician.  Laurie asked him to check everything out and to install a GFI outlet in place of the standard one that the coffee maker had been plugged into.  When he did that, he checked the wiring and it was all OK.  So were all of our electrical panels.

So we contacted our HVAC service provider.  A few days passed before they managed to stop by to check out the problem… The technician noted a brown smudge and a slightly burnt smell on the inside of the unit.  He changed out the thermostat…not an inexpensive item!  The system still didn’t work.

So he and his assistant opened up the unit beside the house.  The photo above shows what they found.  Note the ‘fried’ or burnt area near the center of the panel!  It was definitely toast!

Two days later, the assistant came and went to work outdoors to install the new board.  It didn’t take very long…

This was the new board that was installed.  Complex looking little bugger isn’t it?  Expensive too!

Then he came inside to show us how to work the new thermostat.  The first problem was that he’d never seen one like this before.  He had to call the company’s owner and have him tell him step by step what to do.  Then he and Laurie worked together to figure it out and set it up.  We concluded that the new thermostat has many more functions or ‘capabilities’ than we’ll ever use.  

The good news is that everything is now operational…

The best news in the midst of the world chaos is that it is spring!  Its official here as of 11:50 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time on 3/19/20.  With the spring season comes a ‘rebirth’ of nature, something we really look forward to every year.  This photo shows our new and forsythia bush blooming for the first time.  Then just beyond the forsythia there are the blooms on one of our favorite bushes…the quince next to the driveway.  This cheerful bush blooms early and lasts for quite a while.

These 2 photos show our Lenten roses in bloom…yet another early flowering plant.  FYI, Lenten roses are usually left alone by the neighborhood deer.  The leaves of the plant produce poisonous alkaloids, making them unpalatable to most critters.

Laurie just took this photo of our jonquils in their glory this morning!  All of these signs of spring are more than welcome given the world-wide disaster that is Covid-19!  Like the plants and flowers, we too will come back in full force once this plague upon us all has passed.  In the meantime, we can enjoy nature in all its glory!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave