[tryingtolearn]

Hey guys got a problem w/ my heater that of course happens when there is snow on the ground and its below freezing outside.


I have a Trane XE1200 unit and so far I have really enjoyed it. One of the selling points of this house was that it had new hvac in 2002, so I figured that would be one major problem I could avoid.

Today while sitting downstairs I noticed a really loud humming. I went to investigate it and it was coming from the outside unit and seemed related to the fan that's blowing. The fan was blowing just making a much louder than usual hum.

I turned off the heater to see what would happen, and it turned off as usual and the humming stopped.

When trying to turn it back on, on my thermostat controls in the house, when I turned it on, it switched to 'Heat On', but instead of staying lit up and the heat coming on, it started to blink and nothing happened. A few minutes later the heater kicked back on and the hum started again. When looking at the display again, it said 'Heat On', but also had 'Aux Heat' lit up as well. I went outside to the unit and it seems to either be the fan itself or maybe a transformer/transistor inside the unit.


Any clues on what I need to look for as far as troubleshooting this problem? Christmas really zapped us and we don't have much cash to hire someone to come out and fix it, so I need to see if I can do it.


If it helps, me and my wife both noticed that it smelled a bit funny. A smell I have always associated w/ a heater being on, but a little bit stronger. We smelled that shortly before the humming started.


The heat is still coming on, although delayed, but I really don't want it crapping out on me at 2 in the morning.

Any help would be appreciated.

[NorthernHeat]

You have a 12 seer heat pump. The thermostat has a compressor protection delay, that is why it took so long to start again. Aux heat light was probably on because you turned the temperature up far above the room temperature, if the electric heat has not been on for a while it will smell when it is first turned on. Hum maybe the compressor or a very inexpensive contactor chattering.