Need new furnace

[candycat]

We need a new furnace; we were told ours is leaking and can't be fixed. The local companies are charging about 5K for a new HE gas furnace. (A non-HE one would be about 2600.) I want to get a good one that will last (this may be our forever home, not 100% sure but it could very well be) so I don't want a shoddy one but rather one that is high-efficiency. But we can't afford the 5K right now at all. I saw cheaper ones online but I'm not sure if that's a good idea, and I'm not really sure what to look for when it comes to these things. (DH is no help either.) Does anyone have any idea of what is best in this situation? I say we could afford about 2000-2500 total right now and that's the upper limit.

[dachshundqueen]

I'm not sure where you live (where we live it's 90+ most days right now), but can you not have them shut off the gas to the furnace and then you could just save the difference until the true winter weather hit? Then it wouldn't be leaking as no natural gas is running into the furnace.

Have you worked out what the true potential cost savings are at your current metered natural gas rates of the HE vs. the regular furnace?

If you live someplace really cold and need the furnace right now, perhaps you could put down a down payment of half and pay the remainder to the company in $500 monthly installments?

Are there any taxpayer credits available in your area for upgrades such as this?


Liz

[nd_deadhead]

Our local utility company is offering rebates for new furnaces, in addition to tax rebates (which you wouldn't see unti lyou file).

[candycat]

I talked to a couple of companies and a couple of them will come out and give estimates for our particular house; they also said that there might not be any tangible difference between HE and regular furnace if our house is leaky enough (which, unfortunately, may be the case; in the future we want to get better windows but this year our home improvement projects (need new roof, need new flooring, the new furnace, car troubles, appliance troubles, etc.) are beyond ridiculous and way beyond our budget. Everything fell apart at once and with huge medical and dental bills too, we just depleted any and all savings we had. So, no new windows/insulation for a while.

We don't pay taxes so tax credits wouldn't affect us (I'm assuming?). But there is a rebate in our state, but only for HE furnaces. I think it's $500 which would still bring us down to about $2000 over the standard price ($2500 vs. $4500 with the rebate.) Regular furnaces don't apply for rebates even if they're new.

[SleeplessMommy]

Originally Posted by candycat

.... they also said that there might not be any tangible difference between HE and regular furnace if our house is leaky enough.

They are totally wrong about that. a he furnace converts $100 in natural gas into $90 in heat for your house. the other furnace converts $100 in natural gas into $70 or 80 worth of heat.

what is your total annual gas usage, and what are the efficiencies of the proposed furnaces?

links:
http://www.dsireusa.org/
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/wap.html

weatherization will install furnaces, check to see if you qualify!

[candycat]

Um well our winters are really cold and this year was worse than normal. I am looking at our bill and it looks as if in the summer months it is about .5 - .75 CCF and in the winter it is about 5 CCF going up to maybe 6 in the peak cold. Do those numbers mean anything to you? Cos they don't mean a whole lot to me.

[SleeplessMommy]

try this link:
http://www.aceee.org/consumerguide/heating.htm

your info tells me your are using about 4.5 ccf per day for HEATING. at $1.60 per ccf that is $216 per month. sounds low. does the bill list total usage per year?

[candycat]

Hm. Well our total utility costs are about 300 in the winter (400 if it's absolutely crazy cold) and about 150-200 in the summer depending on how much water we use - that bill includes water, electricity, and gas. I'm not sure if 4.5 CCF for the house is good or bad. We have about 2000 sq. feet but most of it is open and high ceilings and lots of windows. We have lots of thermal curtains but there are some we can't curtain because they're high up. (We're looking into that.) And the doors are kind of drafty and DH smokes and the dog has to go out so often the door is opening and shutting in 0 degree weather. That's only like 4 months out of the year though, spring and fall are about 2-3 months each and hover around freezing point at night but it warms up to around 70 during the day. (We're in the mountains.)

[SleeplessMommy]

At $1000 a year in gas bills, the payback for going with the high efficiency furnace will be fairly long. (assuming 80% vs 90%) Still you should do it.

1) natural gas prices are expected to go up.... HE furnace will lower your total usage.
2) HE furnace (sealed combustion) is much safer then the older furnaces with regard to carbon monoxide poisoning risk.
3) Will improve resale value and may decrease time on market when you go to sell.
4) its the right thing for the environment

[candycat]

Well, if we can swing the price, we definitely will. All our appliances are HE except our refrigerator (which we will replace soon, it's starting to go and it's quite old). Our lightbulbs too etc. I'd like our furnace/water heater/etc to be HE too.

Do the new generation furnaces last longer than the previous ones? If we don't move within the lifetime of the furnace (so, I guess... 10-20 years??) will we still potentially recoup the cost? Or do they also cost more to repair etc.? I'm horrid at math, that's why I was a liberal arts major.