High Performance HVAC Gas Furnace Components Page 3
HVAC Gas Furnace Component Quickpage jump links:
Gas Furnace Components: Ignition Controls
Gas Furnace Components: Safety Controls
Gas Furnace Components: Blower Motor
Gas Furnace Components Related Links
Gas Furnace Parts and Components
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Gas Furnace Components: Ignition Controls
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Gas furnace ignition controls vary from furnace manufacturer to furnace manufacturer. Some are proprietary and some are from an engineering company which specializes in gas furnace ignition controls. Honeywell being a major manufacturer of controls for HVAC also makes several gas furnace ignition controls. Gas furnace ignition controls have advanced by leaps and bounds over the last 20 years coming from the norm which was standing pilot ignition all the way to solid state ignition controls which exist today and are safer and more efficient than the gas furnace ignition controls of yesteryear. Aside from a few companies which lag behind in technology for whatever reason to some water heater manufacturers who continue to adhere to the old standing pilot ignition controls the new modern systems offer safety and efficiency in all their gas furnace controls. Honeywell was the pioneer as they are with much of the modern HVAC technology and Lennox and Carrier came in just behind Honeywell with advancements in engineering of gas furnace ignition controls that changed the entire HVAC gas furnace industry.
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A way of sensing a flame other than the thermocouple or thermopile was first introduced by Honeywell engineers and was soon adapted by other furnace manufacturers once the technology was proven safe and more efficient than other methods including the standing pilot which utilized the thermocouple and the thermopile to prove a flame. The problem with the thermopile and the thermocouple was that it required a flame 24/7. With the introduction of flame rectification from Honeywell this all changed. Flame rectification was a new method and did not require a flame 24/7. With electronics and printed circuit boards the technology of flame rectification began replacing the thermocouple and thermopile standing pilot ignition control system. More and more gas furnace systems came on the market with the flame rectification technology and began replacing standing pilot systems. Flame rectification worked and engineers with the major manufactures adopted the flame rectification technology.
White-Rogers and Carrier had different methods of proving the flame and they never caught on as well as the flame rectification method caught on. Carrier had a bi-metal strip which when a flame was present on the bi-metal strip it snapped to a different position closing the contacts to prove the flame on a pilot light. Once this pilot flame was proven the main burners ignited off the pilot light. White-Rogers had a different method. It used a pilot and a sensor which contained mercury connected to a diaphragm via a cap tube. When the pilot was lit on a call for heat the mercury heated up and closed the contacts on the diaphragm assembly proving that a flame was present. This system also never caught on but as with the Carrier system still exists in some gas furnaces today.
Flame rectification takes a standard operating voltage like 120 volts and converts the voltage to micro-amps. A flame sensor senses this minuscule amperage and a solid state printed circuit board processes this signal of micro-amps proving the flame. A gas furnace should not give a signal to the gas valve to feed gas to the burners unless a flame is present to ignite the gas being fed to the burners. Flame rectification proves the flame reliably and it provides more efficiency than the standing pilot ignition system. Gas furnace manufacturers currently use two different types of ignition methods for lighting the main burners on a gas furnace because of flame rectification. There is intermittent pilot burner ignition and there is direct burner ignition. The intermittent pilot lights a pilot and after the flame is proven a signal goes to the gas valve to open the main valve to the main burners. Direct ignition lights the main burners with either a spark or by a hot surface igniter. The flame sensor using flame rectification senses that the burners are lit and the gas valve continues to feed gas to the burners. These flame sensors are very sensitive and if they are fouled in any way the furnace will not fire. Occasional maintenance of the gas furnace should include cleaning this sensor by a qualified HVAC technician. Chances are that your furnace uses this technology and perhaps even your gas hot water heater.
Gas Furnace Components: Safety Controls
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The flame rectifier and pressure switch which were covered in previous sections of gas furnace components are a part of the safety controls for the gas furnace but there are other controls with the gas furnace that are necessary for the safe operation of the furnace. Other safety controls include limit switches which sense temperature and prevent the burners from operating if the temperatures exceed safe limits. A typical gas furnace could have 4 or more limit switches in various locations throughout the furnace. When these limit switches trip or open the control board kills the gas valve and engages the main blower fan and the induced draft or forced draft blower to run to dissipate as much heat as possible. Some of these limit switches reset themselves when the heat returns to normal. When they reset the furnace control board will give a small time delay before allowing the gas burners to reignite. Heat will be restored and the gas burners will continue to provide heat until the thermostat satisfies or the safety limit opens again. If the limit switch remains open or is a manual reset limit the furnace will attempt to light three to four times depending on the manufacturer and the engineering safety limits which went into the gas furnace control board. If it the safety circuits are open the gas furnace control board detects this and locks the system out for a specific amount of time (usually measured in hours) again depending on the engineering safety limits which went into the control board circuit. After the specific amount of time the control board will again try for ignition unless the safety circuit is open. The board will stay in permanent lock out mode until the problem is resolved usually by an HVAC technician. Sometimes the problem is much more than just a malfunctioning limit switch that needs to be reset. When safety controls trip the problem needs the attention of a qualified HVAC technician so that all possible dangerous conditions can be eliminated and reliable and safe heat can be restored to the structure or dwelling.
Gas Furnace Components: The Blower Motor
A gas furnace needs to move air across the heat exchanger so enter the gas furnace blower motor. The blower motor is usually in the same cabinet as the gas furnace heat exchanger and other parts of the gas furnace. The gas furnace blower motor is usually controlled by the same board which controls the burners and ignition. The same gas furnace system can also be integrated and used with an air conditioning system. There are some high efficiency systems which utilize a variable speed blower motor. These blower motors use DC current which is supplied by a separate solid state board which contains a rectifier to convert AC voltage into DC voltage. Control of these blower motors and what determines the speed they run at is different from furnace manufacturer to furnace manufacturer. These variable speed blower motors have the ability to run at different speeds as determined by the control board and the engineering which went into the control board. The other type of blower motor which is in gas furnaces is the PSC or Permanent Split Capacitor blower motor. These blower motors offer good start-up torque and run more efficiently (except the variable speed blower motor) than other types of motors. Whether the gas furnace has a variable speed blower motor or a PSC blower motor most gas furnaces use direct drive for the blower wheel. A blower wheel is attached to the shaft of the blower and this blower wheel moves the air required to be blown across the heat exchanger and into the ducts of the residence.
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