Same day service may mean they just come out. They may have to order a part
and hard telling when they will come back with that. A major outage may
overwhelm the ammount of service men they have and you are not going to get
that same day service.
And more negativity in this group!
While it is true that they may have to order a part. But the same day
service is guaranteed if calling before 5 PM. If necessary the fellow will
work into the evening.
Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).
It may be the straight truth. In that case, I'd rather have negative on the
usenet list, and be better equipped to face reality.
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.
And more negativity in this group!
Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).
IF the parts are available.
My under-warranty new furnace needed an eductor fan -it still worked
but was very noisy. None of the dealers had it in stock - and nor did
the distributor. It was going to be a 3 week minimum wait - so I just
took it out and brazed the hub where the blower wheel was (supposed to
be) fastened to the shaft.
20 minute job, about a buck's worth of brazing rod and gas - and it's
been perfect for something like 8? years.
NO maintenance contract would have managed to solve the problem in
less than 3 weeks.
High-efficiency units can't exhaust upward because the exhaust gas isn't warm
enough to rise that far- they use a fan to blow the exhaust pretty much
horizontally and out through a wall.
furnace in a pantry off the kitchen. She wants to replace it with a high
efficiency furnace, taking her from 80% efficiency to 95% efficiency,for the
fuel savings.
efficiency unit in that space but didn't give a good reason, at least not one
that she understood. One complicating factor is that she thiks that there is
just one chimney outlet on the roof which is shared by the two adjoining condos
but I haven't actually seen the unit as it's hundreds of miles away.
just remove the old unit and put in a new one unless the high efficiency units
are somehow larger, hotter or whatever.
Hi,
Hi efficiency one has different fresh air intake and venting. Also it
produces condensated water from near perfect combustion needing drain.
It is not just a simple swap out. I observed it when ours was upgraded.
The contractor that talked to the OP obviouosly did not tell the OP
the whole story in an understandable manner. All the comments made
about the venting situation for the new furnaces was exactly correct.
Well in the UK gas appliances can't share a flue with other fuels,
probably the same in the USA.
If your friend wants a high efficiency heating system it will have to
be wet (ie recirculating water and radiators).
No chimney is necessary, most boilers are room sealed. ie air is
drawn from outside into the boiler. Exhaust gases are just piped to
the nearest point outside, usually the wall the boiler is fixed to via
a plastic pipe.
Read up about it here:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condensing_boiler
I think your friend needs to speak to a more knowledgeable installer.
furnace in a pantry off the kitchen. She wants to replace it with a high
efficiency furnace, taking her from 80% efficiency to 95% efficiency,for the
fuel savings.
efficiency unit in that space but didn't give a good reason, at least not one
that she understood. One complicating factor is that she thiks that there is
just one chimney outlet on the roof which is shared by the two adjoining condos
but I haven't
actually seen the unit as it's hundreds of miles away.
to just remove the old unit and put in a new one unless the high efficiency
units are somehow larger, hotter or whatever.
Exactly the same thing can be, and is done, with forced air over here.
In the UK they may not have such advanced central heating. And what
other fuel was mentioned, by the way??? GENERALLY if someone is using
natural gas for heat, they use natural gas for ALL fuelled appliances.
Same with propane. The chances of having a combination of any 2 of
propane, natural gas, oil, or coal in North America is extremely slim.
Might be different in "harry's world"
On Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:52:36 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote:
I mostly agree. But people with oil heat often use natural gas for their
stove. At least they do in my neighborhood where every house has gas, but a
few still use oil to heat. Why baffles me*. Around here it costs three
times as much to heat with oil than gas. And that was a year ago. The
difference may be greater now.
* I have one wealthy neighbor that I have been hassling to change. He
won't. His oil delivery is often at 5:30 in the morning. The truck is huge.
Sometimes my windows vibrate while it sits there. Then it goes through five
gears to get up the hill to my house and then another three gears to get to
the stoplight.
Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).
Around here MUCH more likely to cook with electricity if using an oil
furnace. Pretty hard to get the gas company to put in a meter for just
a stove and/or water heater - and if you get the meter in, only a
total fool would continue to heat with oil.
Now oil heat and a PROPANE water heater and/or stove might be a bit
more common - but still electric is a more common combination with oil
- and if you heat with propane, water heat and stove are most commonly
also propane.
Now I DO have a friend who just got Natural Gas installed on the farm
- he has 2 furnaces - one wood and one gas (replaced the oil furnace)
- heats with wood most of the time, but has the gas there for when
they are not home or when they don't want to bother stoking and
babysitting the wood furnace - which burns free firewood from downed
trees etc on the farm.
On Thu, 04 Oct 2012 21:41:18 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote:
I'm in Brooklyn and electricity around here is very expensive. My house,
and that neighbor's house, is pre-electric and has had gas since they were
built in 1891.
Yes, the neighbor is a fool. His response is it would be expensive to
convert. My response to him is it costs nothing to get a proposal to find
out. And then he could at least do the math.
Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).
Typical answer "we always had it that way" going back to 1948 or so
when the coal burner was converted to oil.
Other reason is people don't have the money to pay for the conversion
so they pay far more than that over time. They can afford the oil
budget, not the initial $500 to change over.
When I moved in, I had oil furnace, electric stove, water heater, dryer. My
electric bill was rather small. I inherited 250 gallons of oil. I got by
first winter by buying additional 150 gallons. Took almost 6 minutes for
furnace exchanger to heat up, then it would output up to 140 degrees out of
registers. That was after I speeded up the fan, and took rug off hidden
return vents. The furnace was literally overheating on each cycle before I
moved in. That furnace would shake the house when it fired up. I prayed it
would last the winter, scary looking thing. Had natural gas line run.
Switched to gas furnace, gas stove, gas water heater, as dryer. Now my
electric bills are higher, gas moderate. Cost around $1000 for gas line. It
was a one day install, gas line, furnace/air. Must have been at least 6
guys working on that. Luckily the gas company man was able to come that
day.
Greg
Coincidentally, there was a story in the local paper just today on
this general topic. Excerpted from the article:
"Homeowners facing the prospect of a new furnace will soon have fewer
and costlier choices.
The only options in Minnesota and 29 other Northern states will be
furnaces with 90 percent efficiency or better, under new rules from
the U.S. Department of Energy. Contractors won't be allowed to put in
less-efficient models after May 1.
The biggest effect will be on owners of townhouses, condos and
single-family homes with furnaces in interior rooms. More-efficient
furnace models typically vent out the side wall of a residence, which
in some installations can significantly run up the job's cost.
One problem for townhouse owners is that some homeowner associations
don't allow side venting of PVC pipes due to aesthetics, and homes
where the furnace is in an interior room often require complicated
installations adding between $1,000 and $4,000 to the cost, said
Jonathan Melchi, director of government affairs at Heating and Air
Conditioning Distributors International."
HomeOwnersHub.com is a website for homeowners and building and maintenance pros. It is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.