High Efficiency Furnace

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.

Reply to
clare
Loading thread data ...

Actually I think you mean it RAN more - it should have cycled less - which IS what you want. Ideal furnace size will maintain temp on the coldest day you can expect to experience by running over 80% of the time. (100% would not be able to recover temperature)

Reply to
clare

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.

formatting link
(e-mail link at home page bottom).

Reply to
Don Wiss

Yes, that's what I meant. Ran more, for longer cycles.

Reply to
Vic Smith

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.

Reply to
clare

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.

formatting link
(e-mail link at home page bottom).

Reply to
Don Wiss

If it works for you, fine. I'm running a business and don't want to tweak the gas flame every couple of weeks. I'd rather utilize technology and save a lot of money on gas. We have other heaters and boilers too and a January gas bill of $30,000 is about average.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

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.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

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

Reply to
gregz

In my case, just changing to a more efficient oil fired boiler is paying for itself with savings. Wish I could get gas though.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

If a 120K BTU is rated at 93% efficient, then it's 93% efficient. If a 70K BTU furnace is 93% efficient, then it's

93% efficient. Any differences in heat exchanger are reflected in those numbers.

Now, having a furnace that is too large may lead to the house having temp swings and some inefficiency related to the furnace having short cycles. But it has nothing to do with too much heat for the heat exchanger.

Reply to
trader4

Efficiency is related to BTU output.

In other words, if the design goal of a furnace is to be able to put out

120k BTU and do it at 93% efficiency, then it's heat exchanger is designed to accomplish that (by adjusting it's surface area, thickness, length, air-flow speed, etc).

If that same furnace can alter it's BTU output (multi-stage or variable burners) then it's efficiency will not necessarily be 93% at other BTU settings. Most likely it will be MORE efficient at lower BTU outputs.

Same way that a car is spec'd to have a certain MPG under certain well-controlled conditions - primarily vehicle speed.

In the case of a heat exchanger, all else being equal, you can increase the efficiency of the heat-exchange process simply by dialing down the BTU output. The extent that you can do that depends on whether the amount of heat coming out of the furnace is high enough to match the heat-loss (of the house) to it's surroundings.

Reply to
Home Guy

That piece of the discussion was about +25 year old systems. The one I throttled down was probably circa 1950's and back then they didn't have efficiency ratings. The burners put out way more heat than the exchanger could use. My gas bill reduction wasn't a mirage. Wasn't talking about modern stuff. Nor would I tinker with their factory settings.

Reply to
Vic Smith

Yes, I agree with that. If it's capable of firing at a lower rate, it should be slightly more efficient at the lower firing rate. So, if it's 93% efficient at 100%, firing at

70%, maybe it's 94% efficient. But it's the basic overall design that makes the big difference. You can't turn an 80% furnace into a 93% furnace by just lowering the firing rate. With a furnace that is rated at 93% when firing at 100%, it's already extracted almost all the heat available. The steam is condensed and the air coming out is barely warm. Lowering the firing rate isn't going to extract much more heat because there just isn't much left to be extracted.

Except that the difference is there can be a huge variation in vehicle speed, grading, load, etc. which gives a big difference in fuel consumption.

And with a condensing high efficiency furnace almost all that available heat has been extracted, even when it's firing at 100% output.

Reply to
trader4

I've bought 2 HE furnaces in the past few years -- a 95% Bryant and a

98% York.

The biggest differences are:

The Bryant has a variable-speed DC blower motor which is supposedly more efficient than an AC motor. The motor runs continuously 24/7, at least at the lowest speed, to help keep the air at a more even temp.

The York has a continuously-variable (100 steps) combustion unit instead of the 3-step unit in the Bryant.

Both are VERY quiet, and are largely unnoticeable except in the rare times they go to 100% output. I don't know if there is any real measurable difference in gas usage between them.

Reply to
John Weiss

This can happen if you setback the temperature at night, and then it goes all out in the morning to get back to the daytime set point.

My Carrier has a setting where I can reduce the maximum fan speed. As the thermostat is prospective, it will have to start earlier in order to be at the set point when it is supposed to be.

Don.

formatting link
(e-mail link at home page bottom).

Reply to
Don Wiss

Our profession is to care about your need of heating in winter and cooling in summer, we deliver our best, so can get most from the High Efficiency F urnace and Central Air Conditioner. Our numerous happy homeowners is key to our success in the field of heating & cooling services. Clean Air offers i ts service in Toronto, Mississauga and all over GTA Areas. Our HVAC (Heatin g Ventilation and Air Conditioning) brands are Lennox and Amana.

We carry complete range of Heating and Cooling Toronto products that includ es,

High Efficiency Furnaces High Efficiency Boilers Tankless Water Heater Central Air Conditioners Heat Pumps Duct Less Air Conditioners Wi-Fi Programmable Thermostat Gas Furnace Filters IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) extensive products range

source:

formatting link

Reply to
jackyjordan3

I have a 3 year old Rheem, two stage, and it's very quiet at both stages. I can't tell the difference between the two, whether upstairs or next to the furnace, unless I'm standing next to the furnace when it goes from low to high. Then there is a slight increase in the combustion noise.

Reply to
trader4

What do you guys charge for a service call to Birmingham, Al. ? ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

HomeOwnersHub website 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.