Bye Bye Furnace Problems!

This week I had a brand new high efficiency furnace installed. The only maintenance it requires is the changing of the filter, and that slides in and out on the side of the furnace. No need to get behind the furnace, and if there were, there's far more space. We also have an additional supply register in an area where there was none before. We may add another air intake - I found out there had been one, but a previous owner had covered it up when he installed his wood-burning stove. We kept getting a whistling sound, particularly in the room where the wb stove is, and found where air is "leaking" into the air intake conduit. We've temporarily taken care of the the whistling, but will probably eventually put a return-air register there. This furnace is 92% efficient - the old one was no more than 53%, possibly as low as 40% efficient. Besides, just the pilot light alone was costing about $25/month in the summer time. We used to turn it off for the summer, but we had problems with the thermo-coupling, making it more & more difficult to relight, so we started leaving it on.

Oh, yes, and while we were at it, we had the ductwork cleaned. Since there was no evidence of access holes for the cleaning, the furnace people deducted that it had never been cleaned. We've owned the place 20 years, and the furnace was old when we bought it. It was not as bad as some places - I overheard one of the furnace guys talking on the phone to his supervisor, and he mentioned one place that had one duct completely blocked off.

Had I known how inexpensive a new furnace was, and how quickly it will pay for itself (3 to 4 years), I'd have done this long ago!

(Originally posted March 23, 2007)