Furnaces are not cheap. Not cheap at all. Still, since I have to, at this point in time, with the price of gas, it should be worth getting a high-efficiency one. And better for my soul, too, right?
Buying furnaces: Never fun. We've had to do it twice, so far.
The thing to consider is how long you're planning to live in that house. The longer you're planning to live there, the better the furnace should be. After all, you don't want to have to buy another one for a long, long time. The way to think about it is to add up the cost of the furnace, plus the cost of fuel, and divide by months. If you buy a cheap furnace, and it lasts five years, but you're not in the house anymore, you're ahead, but if you do that and you're still in the house when it breaks in five years, you're behind.
In one case we got pretty much the cheapest furnace we could find that was a reasonable replacement, because that house was already on the market. In the other case, we got the best high-efficiency furnace available, because we intended it to be our 30-year house. Okay, we only lived there for six more years, but I still think it was the correct answer.
I would also get an electro-static filter, if you can afford it. They're pretty amazing, if a bit pricey. One can argue the cost of the unit vs. replaceable filters, but they remove so much more crud from the air that there's really no comparison. Yes, they have to be washed on a regular basis, but we found that ours survived a trip in the dishwasher just fine.
I'm planning to be here long-term, which is why I did decide to go with high-efficiency. Dunno about 30 years, but I have no plans to move, nor expectations of plans to move, for a goodly time.
I tried a refit to an electro-static filter on the current furnace after moving in, and I found that I wasn't very good at the regular washing behaviour, which made it less useful than a standard filter. We tried washing it in a tub, and it didn't work well, and I'm not sure it would fit in my dishwasher.
Desperately wish we could put a furnace in, we were basically told that our house just couldn't support duct works unless we wanted to completely give up using our basement as any kind of living space.
Isn't owning a house occasionaly lots of fun? I'm always amazed at how it can suck down cash from time to time.
Are you electric base-board heating? Would putting in a furnace and radiators for water instead of forced air work better? The pipes should use up a lot less space than ducts for air.
To add to David's comments there are some wonderful european products that take up little room and were designed as retrofitting places that were unheated.
I'm a little late for helping you make this decision...
This might have helped: http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/burema/gesein/abhose/ce_048.cfm
We just got a half-dozen quotations for our very old but still operating furnace, and air conditioning. There are *lots* of other factors beyond environmental and cost reasons in making the decision. We had 4 people recommend high efficiency, and 2 point out that it wouldn't fit beside our hot water heater.
One the other hand, we had one tell us that high efficiency wouldn't work in our cold garage due to condensation freezing, then found out all our neighbours had high efficiency (they have more space than we do due to door positioning) and had no freezing problems.
The most annoying thing was that 2 quoted to drain the condensation into the floor, and the other 4 pointed out that that was illegal, and would cause major problems down the line.
Please please get a few quotations, and pick each one's brains to understand the system completely - you have to piece it together like a puzzle before you get the true picture. If ever...
(We were contrained to replacing only the air conditioner, and still have the furnace decision to make at a time when we either have money, or it dies a horrible death...)
Its probably too late but I did some research and the main factor was a good installation.
Good furnaces installed badly are worse than bad ones installed well because there is not much difference between good and bad furnaces compared to installer quality.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-10-02 03:32 am (UTC)The thing to consider is how long you're planning to live in that house. The longer you're planning to live there, the better the furnace should be. After all, you don't want to have to buy another one for a long, long time. The way to think about it is to add up the cost of the furnace, plus the cost of fuel, and divide by months. If you buy a cheap furnace, and it lasts five years, but you're not in the house anymore, you're ahead, but if you do that and you're still in the house when it breaks in five years, you're behind.
In one case we got pretty much the cheapest furnace we could find that was a reasonable replacement, because that house was already on the market. In the other case, we got the best high-efficiency furnace available, because we intended it to be our 30-year house. Okay, we only lived there for six more years, but I still think it was the correct answer.
I would also get an electro-static filter, if you can afford it. They're pretty amazing, if a bit pricey. One can argue the cost of the unit vs. replaceable filters, but they remove so much more crud from the air that there's really no comparison. Yes, they have to be washed on a regular basis, but we found that ours survived a trip in the dishwasher just fine.
Good luck!
no subject
Date: 2005-10-02 08:28 am (UTC)I tried a refit to an electro-static filter on the current furnace after moving in, and I found that I wasn't very good at the regular washing behaviour, which made it less useful than a standard filter. We tried washing it in a tub, and it didn't work well, and I'm not sure it would fit in my dishwasher.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-02 06:11 am (UTC)that our house just couldn't support duct works unless we wanted
to completely give up using our basement as any kind of living space.
Isn't owning a house occasionaly lots of fun? I'm always amazed at how it can suck down cash from time to time.
T.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-02 08:29 am (UTC)And, yeah, houses can suck down lots of cash.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-04 07:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-02 09:28 am (UTC)This might have helped:
http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/burema/gesein/abhose/ce_048.cfm
We just got a half-dozen quotations for our very old but still operating furnace, and air conditioning. There are *lots* of other factors beyond environmental and cost reasons in making the decision. We had 4 people recommend high efficiency, and 2 point out that it wouldn't fit beside our hot water heater.
One the other hand, we had one tell us that high efficiency wouldn't work in our cold garage due to condensation freezing, then found out all our neighbours had high efficiency (they have more space than we do due to door positioning) and had no freezing problems.
The most annoying thing was that 2 quoted to drain the condensation into the floor, and the other 4 pointed out that that was illegal, and would cause major problems down the line.
Please please get a few quotations, and pick each one's brains to understand the system completely - you have to piece it together like a puzzle before you get the true picture. If ever...
(We were contrained to replacing only the air conditioner, and still have the furnace decision to make at a time when we either have money, or it dies a horrible death...)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-02 09:57 am (UTC)Good furnaces installed badly are worse than bad ones installed well because there is not much difference between good and bad furnaces compared to installer quality.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-03 07:46 am (UTC)