Is a tripped breaker an electrical problem?
I recently got a call from a customer who had a problem with a breaker tripping on their new heat pump unit. The breaker was changed for a new larger one but the problem persisted.
It was time to discover what was happening – so I paid them a visit to see what was going on. I put the unit onto the cooling setting and the unit went into heating mode! The current climbed till the breaker tripped. Why was the heating coming on when it was 80°F in the room?
Well, I talked to the staff and found out that they had tried to adjust the schedule and somehow the settings got lost in the stat or it had been put back to factory setting (which would not work for a heat pump). I reprogrammed the stat and unit worked fine, but the customer had no cooling for a day (in the height of summer!) and it also cost them hundreds of dollars – all because their staff were not trained in using the stat!
Are today’s thermostats too complicated? Look at our energy management page for a simpler solution.