Cooler weather arrived. We started using the gas pack for heating. After some time, the same thing that had been happening with the cooling began happening with the heating — it simply would not turn on.

We called TSC again. They came out, poked, prodded, tested, ruminated, and gave a verdict: the main control board of the gas pack was at fault.

“That is covered by the home warranty,” I told them, “So I’ll take care of it through the home warranty people.”

Out came company one. They poked, prodded, and tested, and determined that the gas was not properly regulated. They regulated it. The heating worked — for about two hours.

Next day, they came out again. I left a note with the information TSC had given me. “Please change the main board,” I asked. They changed a few parts, but not the main board. Gas-related parts. And the heater worked again. For about two hours.

I called them back out and they finally changed the main board. And the heater worked. For about a day.

We called the home warranty people again, asking that they send out a third company. They did — Accent Heating. The gentleman poked, prodded, tested — “I can’t find anything wrong with it. It’s working now.”

Great.

Two companies, three techs, and none of them can figure out what’s going on.

The problem was this: the zoning system was making a call to the heater, but it was not turning on. As soon as I reset the power to the heater, it would come on. However, it would eventually shut off and never turn back on. The exhaust fan (to remove the fumes from the burning gas) would turn on, but the heater would never ignite.

Finally, AC made it out when it the problem was happening. He tested, prodded, and so on, and finally was able to tell us the problem: some upper temp limit error was tripping out and causing the heater to think it was overheating, so it shut down. Every time I reset it, I was basically overriding that. The heater thought things were fine, but it would once again think it was overheating.

“What’s causing this?” I asked.

“The zoning system,” replied the AC tech.

Double great…