Our Furnace is Replaced

[bjarvis]

As mentioned last week, we have recently discovered we needed to replace our furnace. The new furnace arrived around noon today; it was all over by 5:30pm.

	Old Furnace This is the old beast. It lasted 24 years nearly to the day and was dismissed from service 10/20/2010.
	Midway through Replacement The old furnace has been removed and the AC exchanger is exposed. The exhaust systems have yet to be retooled as well.
	New Furnace The new furnace has a similar footprint but is shorter so extra ductwork was required. The exhaust for the water heater was replaced with a larger diameter for code compliance. A new humidifier has been attached to the intake ductwork. All was installed & functional 10/25/2010.

Overall, it was a relatively painless process --except for the hit to our household wallet. Then again, if we can keep this unit for another 24 years like the prior model, that would amortize to about $192/year. I can deal with that.

Comments

[danthered.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, absolutely; the hype was that the tankless water heater would save cubic dollars and provide endless hot water in an ecologically-sound way, blahbitty-blah-blah. It sounds right, what they say about wasting energy by keeping a big tankard of water hot all day and all night, but fact is that progressively advancing regulations and technology have made water heater insulation and burners very efficient; the energy required to keep the tank hot is minimal. You can read my hash-out of the economy math here; in a nutshell, the payback period for tankless gas vs. tank-type gas is about twenty-two years.