Keeping warm…

What better time to post about our new furnace than a warm almost-summer day. We did get a new furnace this winter, and I have to say, I’m glad we went that route over a wood stove. I like the idea of going it on our own as much as we can, but we’ve got just so much to do; adding the re-supplying of our wood pile to the Spring’s to-do list would be too much. I think about how much time it took to do the two window wells we’ve got done, with three more left to do, a little time spent traveling, a little time spent just taking it easy with the family… There’s no way I’d want to add wood splitting to the list.

Back… November I think it was, the weather was pretty mild up to that point. The furnace needed its yearly maintenance so we had a local HVAC company out to give it a good once-over. Unfortunately, it was in such bad shape by that point that the technician turned it off and advised us to leave it that way. Every person who had come out to maintain the furnace had told us it was about spent so this was no surprise.

Just a week earlier we got a Home Equity loan from our bank; “Just in case.” Well, just in case now happened. We called around and had two HVAC companies out for estimates. They were two ends of the spectrum, professional clean cut and the local boys. The clean cut sales guy knew his facts, but the local boys sent the owner’s son-in-law, who wasn’t clean cut but really knew his stuff. We walked through the basement and he commented on craftsmanship of the house’s return duct work. Unfortunately the supply ductwork had been damaged by a burst water hose in the bathroom above and torn out, unprofessionally replaced by ugly ducts each running the full length from the furnace to the vent they supply. This will eventually need to be redone.

I was impressed with the owner’s son-in-law so we went with those guys.  It was an alright choice; they did a very good job of installing the furnace but could have done a better job cleaning up after themselves.  Nothing major, but just a little more and it would have been a perfect installation.  Also, we’ve never gotten a follow up call from them.  We spent over $3000, a call asking how things were running would have been appreciated.

The details:  It’s a 90% efficient Bryant with single speed blower.  For purchases like these I usually like to try to get something that’s a little more than we need but not over-kill.  The choices were 80% or 90% efficient with a single or variable speed motor.  90% single speed would get the job done well with out the added expense of the variable speed motor.

So, one more big-ticket item to cross off the list.