The blinking light on the relatively new humidifier signifies that the water panel needed replacing. What's a water panel? Hell if I know. I just remember when the furnace was replaced no more than a couple years ago (which was a surprise to me, but I'll admit it could have been replaced) I was told by my parents to look through the instruction manual so I knew how to work it. They don't tell me they're bringing in a new gadget, then make me responsible knowing how it works. Their MO.
This was the second time I know of where that light blinked. The first time I just reset it and forgot about it. We do the same thing when the lights for the water filters in the refrigerators turn red. What do we care? We don't drink the water from there. But to do it again with the furance, which came on last week, risked the usual warnings about not changing the water panel -- inefficient heating and cooling, making the furnace work harder and thereby raising your bills, possible increase in the amount of allergens and mold seeping through the central HVAC, etc. So this time I decided to do something about it.
They say it's easy, and the instructions on what to do filled only one page. I went to Home Depot and, after some looking around (I swear that 80% of the people who go into a hardware store has to have help finding something) I got this Honeywell "generic" water pad (something that looks like this, although the packaging is different) that's supposed to go with our humidifier, as well as a bunch of others.
At this point My Father and I were still not talking to each other, and I was afraid that if I tried to do anything while the heater was still on all day and night, he'd find reason to light into me. So I kept the pad unopened in my room until Saturday, when Mother, as usual, bought something and didn't know how to operate it, so she pulled her American-born son to do the work for her. (It was an Apple TV. By the way, I had to continue to fuck around with it Sunday night. Does anyone know how to get a streaming video running on a browser on an iPad to be shown on at TV through Apple TV? Is it AirPlay, or mirroring, or something? Do we need a cable?) Since the master bedroom is downstairs, very close to the furnace, and hey, I decided not to go to Crashed Ice, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and spend my Saturday night fixing stuff.
One of the steps to replacing the water panel is to take out the old one and put in the new one, duh. But there is a special orientation to these pads: The "top" side has colored marks. That way you know that when you put in the new panel, you should see these colored marks on top. Well of course when I open up the Honeywell water pad I don't see any colored marks anywhere. What the fuck am I supposed to do now? I have been told that it's important that the water panel be put in the correct orientation. If you don't, the water, like, flows upward or something and eventually floods the furnace. I don't know, all I know is that I was frustrated over not being able to get Apple TV to work, and they I had this. So I just said "fuck it" and shoved the panel in a way and put the whole thing back together.
After I reassembled everything and turned the furnace back on I raced upstairs and put my hand in front of a vent. The first time it wasn't blowing hot air; the second time it was. I have since checked out the vents from time to time and I feel heat. And last night it was so hot in Grandmother's bedroom I had to sleep over the covers -- guess that means that it's working and I put in the panel the right way.
However there is one thing bothering me. When the furnace is at rest, between heating periods, I can hear what I think are drops coming from somewhere around the house -- maybe the vents themselves, maybe not. I don't think I heard them before I replaced the humidifier pads. Have I made a mistake? Is dirty humidifier water pooling somewhere in the house, and is it going to wreck the humidifier and furnace and, gulp, the house?
So, if there's anyone reading this, do you have any insight into whether or not I've done this right? I have put in a Honeywell HC26P humidifier pad with no colored marks to indicate its orientation. If anyone can tell me anything about this, please let me know in the comments section below. Thank you.
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