[peachezn818]

Hello everyone! Thank you in advance for chiming in and your help. I am new to this chat and hope you can point me in the right direction. Our HVAC system seems work just fine cold air when cooling and warm air when heating that is until it rains. I know it sounds crazy, but for the last year when it rains we turn the heat on, it will kick on, start warming but after a short while, it goes out and then all we get is cold air blowing. We dealt with it last winter by resetting our breakers, what seemed to restart the system, it worked and it lasted a while.
This year however even after trying the same thing, it is going out sooner leaving us literally in the COLD.
Now backtracking a little, of course we reached out for help to our landlord whom did have a tech come out. But by the time he came out, twice in fact, but by then it had stopped raining and was dry out and of course the darn heat was working… so frustrating.

They did all the “basic” checks and left with a grim you wasted my time look because of course the heat was blowing. This only has happened when it has rained. Which we did mention to him but he seemed not fazed by it.
Has this happened to anyone else?
A repair guy is pending to come out again soon as it is still happening…
Any advice, pointers or anything we can do or share with this repair person so we can get to the root of the problem and finally get it fixed... Thanks again in advance.

 

[surferdude2]

That's an odd situation for sure.

Here goes a stab at it... I can only guess that your furnace transformer is also supplying power to the high side (compressor) of the cooling system. If that be true, then there could be a possibility that rain is somehow getting into the outside unit and causing a line voltage leakage path back through the control system that somehow bucks the 24 volts down to such a low level that the furnace can't work.

Granted, that is a million to one shot in the dark but covering the outside unit could be a test. It could only happen if there was inadequate grounding on one or both systems and maybe even some involvement through the thermostat wiring and the particular stat being used. Might be one for Ripley's.

SD2

 

[roughneck]

What type of system do you have? Make and model number?

 

[sktn77a]

Furnace and AC or Heat Pump?

 

[peachezn818]

At the risk of being mortified due to the lack of knowledge... This is the best I can come up with as ours in on the roof and I’m not about to climb up there and check LOL ... it says Distinctions Amana - Heating and Air Conditioning??

Also, the last rain we had was around Christmas ... so of course now it is dry out and the damn thing started blowing hot air as it's supposed to as of yesterday

 

[roughneck]

We need to know exactly what you have for equipment. Buildings often have different kinds of equipment, so we can’t go off your photo.
Also, to determine your problem you’ll need a meter and you’ll have to be ok working with live electricity.

 

[peachezn818]

@roughneck
to be quite honest I mentioned in my initial post, I reached out in this chat because I was curious if anyone else had heard of this happening before, advice or pointers as to what to tell the repair guy.

I really was just curios if anyone here can provide general feedback I read a lot of posts about systems stuck on blowing hot air .. but not our situation... Anyhow I get it more info would be needed, which I don’t have as I am not good with heights and getting on my roof lol , I’ll have to wait for the repair guy. But thanks anyhow :wink2:

 

[roughneck]

If you don’t feel comfortable going on the roof then please do not attempt it. I’ve known techs that have permanent injuries from falls.
Being you have a landlord you shouldn’t have to worry about fixing it.
If the tech can’t find the problem get them to spray the unit with a hose.
I don’t mean to seem unhelpful but without knowing what equipment you have we can’t begin to even guess.
Is it a gas unit? Heat pump? Oil?

 

[user_12345a]

if it's a heatpump, probably related to the defrost cycle. defrosts will last longer in moist weather and there may be an issue not bringing on the aux heat to temper the air.

since you mentioned landlord - u as a tenant shouldn't try to fix it anyhow.

 

[peachezn818]

Yes totally agree as I was never planning to fix it myself just curious if anyone hear had heard of a similar situation. Thank you for your time. I will have my landlord & service tech hopefully figure it out.:glasses:

 

[roughneck]

Yes, I’ve had units not work in the rain before.
As to why depends on the style of unit.
Since you say cycling the breaker makes it work, it’s likely some sort of error code.
When it doesn’t work, leave it be. Don’t reset it. Call the landlord immediately and report you have no heat. That way the tech will see it in a non-operating state.
Your landlord is obligated to provide repairs to your heat in a time sensitive manner.

 

[coolair111]

Still you did not mention if its cooling and heating is it a ductless system? An error is causing it normally in ductless system the indoor system shows the error code.