This weekend we noticed that our digital thermostat wasn’t registering a temperature and appeared not to have any power. I went down to the panel and the 60 amp breaker was tripped. I cut it back on and a few minutes later it tripped again and it did this a few times. We called the HVAC sub who installed the system and ask them to come take a look, but thought it would also be good to call our electrician before they arrived to see if he could diagnose over the phone. He thought that it was HVAC unit causing problem. The HVAC sub came and after looking at a few things thought he would look at the panel and he found that the screw wasn’t tightened the way it should and many of the other screws in the same panel were the same way.
I am now wondering if this would cause any other problems with the equipment long term or short term. Was this impacting the efficiency? Was this damaging the equipment?
Look forward to hearing your insight.
Thanks.
Replies
Re: "I am now wondering if this would cause any other problems with the equipment long term or short term."
Heat may have damaged the breaker feeding the air handler. May have shortened its life some. Time will tell. Depends on how hot it got for how long.
If your climate is such where heat is a critical issue you might do well to have a spare handy, if you could replace it yourself, or just have it replaced as a precaution. Then again it might last another twenty years.
"Was this impacting the efficiency?"
To some small degree. Not likely enough to show on the bill.
"Was this damaging the equipment?"
Possibly a bit, low voltage can damage the motor, but here again it is likely to not amount to anything. Depends on how bad it was and how long the problem continued. Most motors can take a considerable amount of abuse.