I may need a new furnace for the house. How bad is this going to be?

In reply to rustybugkiller :

I replaced a older furnace with a new more efficient one and the money I saved over a Three year period paid for it.  I just put it on a loan from my credit union and my annual savings paid for it. To be fair I simply pulled out the old one slid in it's replacement and went on with my life. 

I still have that furnace. Right now it’s the only source of heat in my “New” house but once the in floor radiant heat  is finished it’s function will  be backup and supplement heat in front of the big windows looking out over the lake.  On really cold (minus 20) days even though I have high efficiency double pane windows there is no way the walls of windows are as warm as the R30+ walls are. 

My friend who has been in the HVAC business for 20+ years is a big proponent of Daikin brand furnaces and AC. It's a Japanese brand that has been making big inroads into the U.S. lately. They're manufactured in a huge plant in Texas that opened within the past two years. He says their pricing is still low so you get a big bang for your $$ and the equipment is well engineered.

I also have a Lennox Pulse that will probably kick it any day now. That is one cool piece of technology though. It's basically a pulse jet, just like the German V-1 rocket. I love hearing it fire up and the soothing grumble it makes from the basement. The only furnace with an exhaust muffler!

My lovely old Rheem furnace won't light up occasionally in the fall, and I have to go spend $8.00 for a new thermocouple.  Then I listen to friends tales of modern furnaces with flame sensor issues, burned circuit boards, failed exhaust fans, hundreds of dollars in service calls...

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Also measure the furnace by the amount of energy it uses.  Just like cars have gotten a lot more efficient so have furnaces. No sense using  12 mile per gallon furnace when a 30 mile per gallon furnace will do the job more reliably.  

frenchyd said:

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Also measure the furnace by the amount of energy it uses.  Just like cars have gotten a lot more efficient so have furnaces. No sense using  12 mile per gallon furnace when a 30 mile per gallon furnace will do the job more reliably.  

 

Not if you burn more money installing and repairing than you save in fuel.

In reply to Streetwiseguy : it’s a lot easier to install a furnace than swap a motor in a car.  Repairs also are easier to do on  furnace than a car.  

When I first put in the new furnace I was on the road all week long so I signed up for service plus.  They’d come out and clean & tune the furnace every fall, and if some other appliance broke down fix that too.   I think it used to be something like $16 a month, probably more now but if you fear furnace issues money well spent 

SaltyDog said:

Just replaced my entire HVAC system in November.

Heat pump and air handler, house is all electric. Lennox brand, $5700 installed, done in a day.

December's electric bill ($175) was about 65% of last December's bill, average temp within a couple of degrees.

Get a couple quotes at least, I got 3 and they ranged from $5700 to over $10000.

The winning quote was the company who had installed the original system in 1977.

Not a real GRMer are you? I bought a extremely efficient furnace for $1800 big enough for my 5500 sq ft house it cost me a few hours to install it and a trip or two to the hardware store. 

Later I tore down that house and reused that furnace in the new one.  I guess I’ve spent about $1500 or so on duct work

basically you run the duct from the plenum to the outlet and from the room back to the intake side of the furnace.  It’s not very hard.  

In reply to Datsun310Guy : why not do it yourself and save about $7-8000? 

Sure a crew can do it in a day but with friends and family you can probably do it in a weekend.  Especially if you rent a man lift rather than hump them up a ladder

In reply to Duke : do not use furnace ducts for A/C 

Its as wrong as can be!  Heat rises so it makes sense to duct the furnace air into the bottom of the room 

( although there are massively more efficient ways to heat a house). 

Cold air settles so you have to use a lot of energy to blow it up where it can do some good.  

The rest of the world puts cold air out at the ceiling and allows it to drop over you

look up separate A/C units.  The compressor is outside the condenser is at the ceiling with the lines and power inside the walls 

In reply to maschinenbau :

They were ahead of their time but due to the lack of replacement parts keeping one running is going to just get harder.

I have some parts that I saved from my old unit. If you want them their yours for the cost of shipping.

One item is a "NEW" spark plug which can cost over $50 if you buy it new.''

FYI when they replaced mine I had them leave the old units, both furnace & AC.  I tore them apart and sold the scrap.

I made about $120 doing that.

frenchyd said:

In reply to Datsun310Guy : why not do it yourself and save about $7-8000? 

Sure a crew can do it in a day but with friends and family you can probably do it in a weekend.  Especially if you rent a man lift rather than hump them up a ladder

 

I’m to the point in life that I know what to do and what not to do.  I leave this to professionals and I go sell hoses in my profession.  I doubt I’d save that much money as the furnace and complete air conditioning system cost more than $500-$1500.  

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

Knowledge is power.  Professional just means it’s someone who gets paid to do a job. There is no guarantee of quality.  

The first time I did my own roof and spent about $2000 doing it. Back then it was $10,000 to do an average roof now-days it’s closer to $20,000.   I read a few books and watched the” pros” do it.  

It would have taken  pro team of 4 a day to do it, 

 It took me 4 days. Well, two days dawn ‘til dusk on the weekend and two after work days until dark.  

Then I spent the next couple of days recovering from working in that position.  

But the money I saved I could spend on my race car!   

frenchyd said:

SaltyDog said:

Just replaced my entire HVAC system in November.

Heat pump and air handler, house is all electric. Lennox brand, $5700 installed, done in a day.

December's electric bill ($175) was about 65% of last December's bill, average temp within a couple of degrees.

Get a couple quotes at least, I got 3 and they ranged from $5700 to over $10000.

The winning quote was the company who had installed the original system in 1977.

Not a real GRMer are you? I bought a extremely efficient furnace for $1800 big enough for my 5500 sq ft house it cost me a few hours to install it and a trip or two to the hardware store. 

Later I tore down that house and reused that furnace in the new one.  I guess I’ve spent about $1500 or so on duct work

basically you run the duct from the plenum to the outlet and from the room back to the intake side of the furnace.  It’s not very hard.  

A few hour install?..... 

do tell us more, that sounds incredible

One problem with DIY is a furnace installation often requires a permit and inspection sign-off from the local township.  I know mine does (and has it). My ex's does as well, although the installation contractor she used failed to do so.  Generally not an issue until you need to sell the house and it gets flagged because installed equipment doesn't have the required inspection stickers.  

Check before you go down that path.

In reply to Ian F :

Getting permits and inspections varies greatly from city to city and place to place.  Some include it with the electrical inspection while others don’t bother at all.  

I have my work checked by the gas company every fall as part of my service plus agreement. 

In reply to fasted58 :

Ok,  I rolled it off the truck and onto my two wheeler. I’d already cleared a path for it and slid it into place making sure the plenum lined up with my duct work. 

That might have taken ten minutes, maybe a little less.  Oh did I neglect to mention the furnace was in my shop. In the tuck under garage?  ( big smirky grin)  

The gas line was a simple matter of connecting a few fittings after brushing on the goop used to seal pipe so it doesn’t leak. I temporarily capped it just before connection to check all my connections for leaks after opening the outside gas valve.  Then when everything was finally connected rechecked everything for leaks again using the fluid they sell for that purpose.  

The electrical was connect the wires. One set for power and one for the thermostat.  

The exhaust is plastic pipe. And that was about as simple as measure and cut.  Finally there is the drain which again is a  flexible plastic tube that runs to the drain. 

I’m sure I’ve missed something but it’s not very complex.  I’ve done it twice with this furnace and it’s been inspected several times by the gas company and once by the city.  

Oh and yes I do have both smoke detectors and CO detectors

Well, my furnace crapped out Saturday (three days ago).  Had the guy come and confirm the circuit board had fried--we smelled the burning insulation at the time.  He quoted $900 to repair and then $13K and $15K for installation of new systems.   Found the circuit boards available online for $300 overnighted.  They should be here tomorrow.  We'll see if it goes well, but I'm not enamored of waking up in a 45 degree house...

I feel for those of you don’t have back up heat (wood). Maybe a good idea to have spare parts around that are know to go bad luck! Although, keeping and extra $300 board around is probably not gonna work

Waking up to a 45 degree (F) house isn't so bad.  Waking up to a 15 degree house would seriously suck.  

We went without electricity for a week during an ice storm.  The wood stove saved us.  I really need to put a cord of wood up.

Dr. Hess said:

Waking up to a 45 degree (F) house isn't so bad.  Waking up to a 15 degree house would seriously suck.  

We went without electricity for a week during an ice storm.  The wood stove saved us.  I really need to put a cord of wood up.

 

If it was that cold the pipes would freeze.  THAT would suck...

Just be glad it's a furnace and not a heat pump. What the hell is up with Freon??? I got hit with 2 units in one year. "This Freon is obsolete blah blah 150.00 a pound blah blah January 1st 2019 blah bah 8500.00 blah blah. DAYUM!

Remind me to never do any work for any of you, damn.


In reply to NermalSnert :

Half of the old stuff is getting phased out because of environmental E36 M3. They make replacements that drop in but you still have to reclaim all the old stuff before you can toss the new in.

Yes. My upstairs unit had a lot of life left in it. It was replaced because of a small repairable leak. Grrrrrrr and cha-ching!

If it was repairable why didn't you just have it repaired?