I have only used my furnace for an air mover to blow air over the coil/radiator my outdoor wood burner heats water aand pump through it. When the thermostat call for heat the blowere kicks on. Its has some issues with a bad connection but when the natural on the service drop broke it smoked the circuit board and the transformer.
Heating air and electric are about the only things I dont know anything about and I had been puting this off.
Im not the something is broke call the guy to come fix it type. Well yesterday was the day.
When I started I had no idea there was a transformer that made 110 to 24 v to run the thermostat, or what the 5 wires did going to the blower.
But some reading and trial and error I learned a lot on how the system works and got it working how I want it. Started with this.


And now have this. I no longer have the option for lp backup i have not used in 10 years anyway. Its cleaner I got rid of the smoked parts and the short issue it had befor the natural broke. Now it looks like this.
If more people were willing to repurchase and learn going outside their comfort zone maybe we wouldn't have the Mexicans are doing all the construction jobs thread.

I've always envied people who have the patience to deal with that kind of stuff. Nice job.

You might want to re-think the need for backup heat, you're good now, but with your health problems and the fact that the boys will be moving out eventually, you may not have the labor available....I'd rather fix the problem so that IF you needed the LP heat, it would be available, not that you have to use it...but you could.

I like back up systems, for when things go to pot..

I agree with that and its sound logical thinking. So more background as to why im not worried about it. The reason I put the outdoor unit in was I have a huge old draft filled farm house. The lay out is bad its been built onto at least 4 times in the last 100 plus years.

When we first started working on it on my days off and we're not moved in yet we keep the furnace on 55 when we were not here. So with us being here less than half a month and the furnace at 55 the rest of the time the lp use was off the chart. An when it was cold the furnace would not turn off and it wouldn't get into the 60s in the house. I looked at all the options like replacing windows and more insulation. Its got 26 windows and wss adding up fast with the cost.

I did some calculations . And figured I would go throu 4 to 5 500 gal tanks of lp a year and the hous wouldn't be warm. I could spend many thousands and not be sure of the end result.

So I put in the outdoor unit. After 4 years it paid for itself in what I saved on lp. The house stays warm and it also heats my water and I never run out of hot water. I was also doing some tree work on the side at the time and being paid to bring my firewood home. But I never started doing trees in the new area after the move like I thought I would. Instead I started working more overtime and trying to get ahead of my finances once I knew MS was a possibly with my developing problems.

The trad off is some work cuting wood 10 gals of gas some bar oil and a few chains. . I keep the dead fall and farm cleaned up.

If my health gets to the point I cant keep up with the wood and the kids are gone I likely will build/have built a single level wide door smaller ridiculously well insulated house that can be heated and cooled easily and if funds available on a solar power system. I wont need as much space when the kids are gone and for what it will take to fix the old hqouse I could have a small house built without the steps, with wide doors and halways and zero entry shower and built in grab bars where needed.

List of things this house needs. 26 windows, roof, kitchen and 2 bath remodel and insulation. Would be nice to have updated siding. And with all that I still have an old hous way to close to the road. So making it last long enough for the kids to be out of the house and building something smaller and set up for possible wheel chair and handy cap needs and low utility cost has been the plan lately.

I gotcha... sometimes you gotta know when to fold em, lol

The plan always was the current house was a temporary few year solution thats become 10 and counting. I wanted to build elsewhere on the farm and put a shop where the house sits since it close to the road and has power, water and a septic.

Thats taken so long now if i build for today's needs im afraid I will have a much larger house than Im going to need. On the flip sid if that became true I could always build a smaller house later and let one of the kids take over the larger house as they get a growing family.

Then MS hit and a lot is in limbo yet. So the repair/bypass cors maybe $100 in parts b and some reading and stepping out of my comfort zone. It works and I learnd a bit about how a hvac system works. And right now I freely admit being so limited with MS it feels really good having small accomplishments and useful after feeling pretty useless an awful lot

As you probably remember my wife has MS and is progressing, she handles it well but its frustrating to her, and of course harder on me...
Trick is not to dwell on the problem and keep doing what you can, attitude is everything... it sucks, but it is what it is.