Starting the process to replace the furnace

Submitted by Jeremy on December 28, 2006 - 12:46pm.

Well the gas furnace appears to have died (bad smell, CO alarm going off and I have already cut the power to it and aired out the house) and I'm currently heating my 850 sq. foot house fairly successfully with one 1300W electrical heater.    The overnight outside temperature (in the back porch) was around 34 degrees, the inside temperature was ~60 degrees and I made a point of doing several loads of laundry as I have setup the clothes drier to vent into the enclosed back porch which works fine as long as the clothes haven't been sitting in the washer for an extended period of time.

Currently I have a gas furnace so the possible options as I see it are to replace the heating system with ....

  • an 90% efficient gas furnace ($3400)
    • as I have such a small house I don't know if the 90% efficient would even really make sense as I believe they were developed for the NE where it is considerably cold.
  • an 80% efficient gas furnace ($2700)
  • an 80% efficient gas furnace ($2700) plus a solar hot water system ($1500)
  • install a bunch of electric baseboard heaters (unknown cost)
  • replace the gas furnace with an oil/bio-diesel  based furnace (unknown cost)
    • I read somewhere that biodiesel doesn't work very well with standard oil furnaces, but I haven't researched the topic.
  • have a radiant floor heating system installed ($6500)
    • would be augmented by solar hot water
    • w/minimal battery system could heat the house the house with a gas water heater and not need electricity.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

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Thoughts on a new furnace

Submitted by davidfcohan on December 29, 2006 - 9:05pm.

If you've really got $3400 to spend you might take a step back and think how you could best use it to reduce energy use. I agree that's a lot of money to spend to heat 850 sf. You could spend the same amount on insulation, windows, weatherization, etc. and significantly increase your comfort and reduce your need for heat. The first thing you should do is call the Energy Trust (energytrust.org) and get signed up for a free audit. They'll come to your house, give you a list of recommendations and they can talk you through the options. If we get a chance at the Council meeting I can probably give you some ideas if you describe the house to me.
--David C.

options

Submitted by Jeremy on December 31, 2006 - 11:19am.

I'm still going over my options, the heat exchanger on my existing furnace is dead so I do need to do something beyond the portable heater in the hallway. I would love to hear some suggestions and I'm considering quite a few different options.

Options

Submitted by Anonymous on January 3, 2007 - 6:46am.

Hi Jeremy,

I've probably looked at all the options for home heating over the years including an extensive review over the past 2 1/2 years since owning my 1-story 936 s.f. home in SW Portland. The home built in 1949 is now fully insulated (ceiling/walls/crawl space under) and has all double pane windows and storm doors. It simply makes the home much more comfortable in addition to boosting its thermal efficiency.

The home has a newer Trane 90% high efficency Gas furnace installed in 1999 but I don't use it. Why? A number of reasons:

-my feeling is forced air furnaces are over-kill for houses as small as ours. It just ends up blowing hot air all over the place!!!
-Because of its close proximity to living space you always hear it. Too noisy. Furnace noise also travels thru short ductwork lengths.
-I wince at the thought of contributing to the LNG terminal problem and the like.
-The furnace exhaust concentrates the pollution in a urban residential neighborhood.
-Finally, watch out for old ductwork issues and the cost of curing them including Asbestos!!!

I use portable electric baseboards made by Delonghi. They are my personal favorite. They have 3 power levels including low which draws only 600 watts. Low is the only setting I ever need to run them at with few exceptions. A total of 5 are spaced thru the different areas of the home but very rarely are all 5 on at once. They have a dial thermostat but I usually don't use that feature but simply run at low power. That way they are completely silent without the metallic ping-ping of baseboards heating up and cooling down.

-These portable baseboards have a number of advantages over baseboards mounted to the wall. They can be setback from the wall. Mine are placed several inches back from outside walls and under windows. In this way they are more efficient because heat isn't radiating thru the outside wall.
-You can adjust their location to optimize for your home's floor plan.
-No special wiring or electrician needed.

You could just buy 1 to start to see if you like it before deciding to buy more. Mine were about $50-something when purchased. You can order by phone or online and they'll ship right to your home.

Make sure you have one of your electric utility's green energy options. This is essential.

With Portland General Electric I use Green Source instead of Healthy Habitat because I know Nature Conservancy doesn't particularly need my $2.50 per month!

There are also other types of portable electric heaters including cove heaters. You could also do floor radiant heat in the longer term.

Mark F.

interesting

Submitted by Jeremy on January 3, 2007 - 4:45pm.

Thanks Mark, I'm more then willing to go with quieter portable heaters. However I wonder what has to be in place for potentially selling a house, do you have to have centralized heat controls?

heating and selling

Submitted by Anonymous on January 5, 2007 - 4:26pm.

Buyers may be willing to pay more for the home if it has a new high efficency gas furnace. On the other hand, if you can emphasize the home's energy efficiency and how the heating system it has is actually better then a furnace setup, then who knows?

Mark

Buying a 90% Efficient furnace!

Submitted by Anonymous on January 14, 2007 - 8:48am.

Insulate, insulate, insulate your house & hot water pipes.........
Put in energy efficient compact florescent lights (you will be cooler in the summer)!
Do buy that 90% high efficiency gas furnace but get one that is correctly sized for your small house and don't turn it up to 80 degrees. By buying the highest efficiency you show the furnace manufacturers there is a market for their best stuf' (as long as it is priced within your budget).
Use fed / state tax credits to keep your initial investment down.
Don't create mold in your house by venting into a place where warm moist air will condense onto a cold surface.
Don't feel uncomfortable about using energy as long as you use it very efficiently.
Live in a comfortably heated house and give thanks for that opportunity by volunteering for a good organization like the Oregon Food Bank!

Have you checked out geo-thermal?

Submitted by plunsfo on January 15, 2007 - 12:27pm.

Geo thermal is one of the most efficient forms of heating and cooling available. The biggest drawback is the high up-front cost of installation (in your house you would probably need to drill three holes into the backyard, down to the water table.)

This is a heat pump using ground temperature rather than air temperature as the heat exchange medium -- much more efficient because the ground temperature doesn't waver very much below five feet depth.

You also have the benefit of using radiant heating with this system, which is relatively silent.

thought about it

Submitted by Jeremy on January 15, 2007 - 3:57pm.

If I was planning on staying at the house at I'm at currently I would consider going with geo-thermal, and for that matter just go hog wild with all things sustainability. I'm not so sure where I'm going to be living and/or working so I haven't sunk a bunch of money into options like geo-thermal.

Energy Trust audit on the 19th.

Submitted by Jeremy on January 15, 2007 - 4:00pm.

Also, I have Energy Trust coming out for an energy audit on Friday morning which will provide some food for thought.