Cold, Hot, Cold, and Finally Hot Again

On the coldest winter night to hit the Central Texas area, outside temperature dropping into the lower teens, our heater conked out in the wee hours of the morning.  I woke up because I felt cold air blowing directly on top of me.  Right then, I knew our heater was busted as it has had problems in previous years with similar symptoms.  I did not want to diagnose the problem in the dark so reading 65 degrees on the thermostat, I turned it off so it would not blow out more cold air through the vents.  I then shut the door to our room and turned on the portable heater to our room.

I woke up to the dogs snuggled up next to the heater.  I opened the door outside of our bedroom and the wave of cold air hit me like Babe Ruth teamed up with Jack Frost.  The thermostat read 60 degrees.  I put on a bunch of clothes and headed up into the attic to see if I could fix the heater.  Well the problem was unlike previous years, where the sensor was not clean in telling the heater it was hot enough to start blowing out the heated air.  This problem was that the burners would not even ignite.  I called the repairman that I have had fix my heater in the past, an older Vietnamese gentleman.  It is too funny when I talk to the guy on the phone because of the language barrier.  The less we understand each other, the louder our voices get.

Two hours later, he stopped by and fixed the following part...

The igniter was cracked from age and use, and much like a light bulb filament, it just burned out.  Home ownership is just fantastic.  With this cold spell sticking around for the next few days, the family and I are just happy to have heat again!