Replacement of Heating Circuit Board

I guess it was about a week ago when we realized our heater had not come on in a long time. The breaker was tripped so we reset it. The heat would come on but the air would not circulate. The only way to get the heat into the house was to turn the fan on and keep it on. It was a miserable night with that blowing. Not much sleep was gotten.

We called the heating and air guys the next morning. They sent a tech out and he said that the circuit board in the heater needed to be replaced. We figured as much because we had googled the problem the night before. It seems to be a common thing that happens.

The heating tech guy gave me an estimation of the part costing $298 (and that is with the discount) plus labor being at least $75. I told him we would look for the part ourselves and possibly replace it. He jumped the wires so that the fan was running ALL the time. Leaving no way to turn it off. It drove me batty!

When my husband got home he re-jumped the wire to turn the air on when the heat came on. The only problem with that is there is no delay time to heat up or keep blowing the warm air out after the heater shut off.

Anyway, we found a part online for $100. It showed up on Friday and my husband fixed the heater on Saturday. It was an easy fix. We did find out something interesting in the process.

Once he took the old board out he saw the problem. The board had no protective layer behind it so when it touched the metal behind it there was an arc and the breaker was thrown. Yay for breakers! As you can see it was a heck of an arc!

My husband needed a layer of plastic behind the new board so that this doesn't happen again. Lucky for him (and me) I have lots of craft supplies. One of them being plastic pattern sheets for quilting and applique. I cut a piece to fit on the back of the new board. Then I lined up the holes and punched out holes to match with a regular hole punch. And it works great! We also put some electrical tape on the back part of the box for a little extra safety.

The before pictures, the wiring of the board, etc.

The proof of an arc! There are bubbles on the box! That part of the board is destroyed.

The plastic piece for the new board.

What the old board should have looked like.

The new board and the new board with the plastic attached.

Electrical tape on the back of the box for extra safety.

The after pictures. The new board installed and wired.