Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I believe the valve for the gas probably malfunctioned, as the ignitor tries to "light" the burners, but then goes out. It's 13 years old (same with the AC) so I believe it's time to probably replace them both.
Any advice on brands?
13 years isn't very old, IMHO. Our furnace is nearly twice that old and still going strong.
Not one that's going to die after only 13 years.
>
Yeah But.... If he gets a new one with high efficiency, he can save money on his utility bill.
At 13 years, it still has a lot of life left in it. Pay the $100 or so for a repair and save thousands of dollars. It may be something very simple to repair. Even the new higher efficiency models are not justifiable to replace an entire furnace with the savings.
It says "differences of less than 5 points are not meaningful" yet all the values appear to be 20% +/- 5 points.
I'm not sure replacing a 13 year old furnace is necessary, that isn't all that old.
Having said that, I have one piece of advice. Check to see how loud the blower is. I got a new York furnace last year, and the blower is louder than I expected. I finally turned the blower speed down one notch, and it is better, but it is still louder than I would like.
Bill Gill
If you are reasonably sure that you only need the gas valve, then call around and ask over the phone for a rough idea on how much to replace it. Have an accurate description of the furnace (make, model, type) It sounds relatively easy to fix and therefore might be more of a repair issue instead of a replace unless your existing system is really inefficient.
I agree that 13 years is not very old.
Smarty
I replaced my 21 year old Heil high efficiency 92% forced air >> Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
How can gas furnaces vary much in efficiency?
It's a gas flame, no matter the brand. Same amount of heat, etc.
You're kidding right? If not you must be getting confused with electric heating.
I just replaced a 60% efficient gas furnace with a 94% efficient model. How much heat gets lost up the chimney vs used to heat the living space varies wildly by furnace design. Modern high efficiency models are so efficient they vent out PVC pipe out the side of the home and the exhaust is quite cool.
Best Regards,
-- Todd H.
Surely you jest?
I replaced a 27 year old GE heat pump with a 98% efficient Trane gas furnace and 19 seer AC unit. It cost quite a bundle to replace, but I'm hoping the new stuff lasts as long as the original GE. I think a $300 fan would have brought the old heat pump back online, but I decided to convert to warm air and a variable speed blower. I'm hoping for a lower bill this winter, but I'm keeping low expectations just to be safe.
My advice is to look at the cost per year + cost of repair vs the cost of a new system + the savings per year. My guess is that its much cheaper to repair than replace. It's not like a new car that you can really enjoy, it's an expensive box in the basement.
If you th>Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
Thank you everyone for the help. The furnace and AC are going on 14 years old. The AC seems to be in pretty bad shape. It's loud, and doesn't cool the house very well. I figured replacing them both will be around $7000. Not something to sneeze at. I will ask the tech when he comes out this weekend what it will cost to simply fix the furnace, but my guess it will be around $400/500.
Yowsa. Where do you live that a 98% unit was you selection looking at savings vs system cost?
-- Todd H.
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