Anyhow, I'm a poor electrician and mechanic. I do better at woodworking, masonry, or plumbing.
I'm not a full blown electrician but I am NATE certified for the HVAC industry and that was a super hard test for me! I didnt pass it until my 3rd go at it! The first trip down to take it most of the shop went to take the test...and every single one of us failed it and we're talking prolly 20 people! And I dunno about the other guys but I always failed it on the electrical portion. They have have the test all broken down in scores. I failed it but I knew I was weak in electric. So I studied up on electric and took it again! And failed again.
So the 3rd time around on the test I studied hard for two weeks in the Basic Electrical chapters in Moder Refrigeration & Air Conditioning book before the test and for two days before the test I crammed on that book! And I walked in the next day for my 3rd try on that test and felt good about it. Some of the questions on the test were what I read last night! So I felt like I smoked that test!
I got my results back and failed again. I felt like an idiot, I studied so hard! What kind of test is this?!
Then they called on the phone 2 days later and said they had used the wrong template to grade the tests and that I really Did Pass It! I was ecstatic! That Test made me become a better A/C Technician. If you want to brush up on electrical, that's the book to get "Moder Refrigeration and Air Conditioning" The basic electric section. It goes all through using low voltages to control high voltages. 3 phase and all that. It's all about amp draws and VA of the replacement parts.
One time when I still lived in Colorado, it was cold out, snow bitter cold. SIngle digits. An elderly lady called me with no heat, and it's getting cold fast can you send someone? I went to her house and part of her computer board was broken, the micro relay which turned on the indoor blower. It would fire up fine but with no blower coming on it would get too hot and hi Limit off when it got over temperature. It was friday night and no supply house open until monday. She needed heat, bad. She was elderly. I knew what was wrong. I didnt have the part!
But only the micro relay on the board was bad for the blower. So if I took the power from a different source and tied it in with the red wire from the low voltage heat circuit with a peanut relay, I could make the blower on at the same time as the burners did. At least she would have heat.
Now you gotta be careful adding things into an existing circuit that is dont start pulling to many amps and heat up some wires! But those peanut relays are only rated at .15 amps so that's next to nothing and created no danger or extra amp draw of any consequence. And the lady would have heat until monday when I could get her part! So I did it and felt like a hero for being able to help.
So I left. And over the weekend her son in law/brother in law whatever came over and (I'm an HVAC Tech...derr) and when she told him that I fixed it temporarily he went down and took the cover off of the furnace to look at my work...And he didnt know what he was looking at. He couldnt understand what I did. All he seen was a spagetti factory of new wiring and a new relay and stuff....and he turned around and told her that I almost burned her house down! And then, he couldn't figure out what was wrong with it so he replaced her gas control and when that didnt work then he figured out it was the board.
That lady called me up yelling at me and saying she wanted me to pay the $600 bucks to fix it because I almost burned her house down!
I told her to sue me because I'll have an electrician there as an expert witness to explain how adding 0.15 amps to a 3 amp circuit isnt any danger whatsoever and that her SIL or whoever is wrong! And you didnt need the gas valve!
Now I only did that because it was a dire situation anyway. She was elderly and I was trying to do her a good turn and get her heat. But I knew (from that durn Test! Lol) what I was doing and was understanding the circuit. Yes it was chnging the UL Listing of the Unit, and that is normally a No-No. But this was an emergency.
I dunno, no good deed goes unpunished I guess. I tried. She still went without heat until monday. That durn kid!
