I’m looking for opinions as to if I should have a high efficiency furnace installed in my new house.
I live in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. My basement (bi-level house) is insulated concrete formed (ICF) Using Typar for a house wrap and making sure every little gap along the foundation, framing, windows, doors and such are sealed tight, foamed to the hilt. Casement windows Low-E and sun shielded. Insulation will be cellulose, blown into the walls. Basement will have a sealed wood burning fireplace 77% efficient (if I remember correctly) There is an Air exchanger.
The idea is to rely to a certain extent on the fireplace for heat or say 50% or more of the time. The fireplace unit, burning efficiently will need little daily maintenance to put out some warmth. As the building envelope is tight and properly insulated, I’m expecting that it won’t take much heat to warm it up as it will be retained effectively.
It will cost about a grand or so extra for the high efficiency furnace as opposed to the standard model. Could I spend the money somewhere else and not worry about a high efficiency furnace? Of course the more I use the fireplace, the longer it would take to see any return on the furnace upgrade.
What do you guys say?
Replies
Thought this was a first post, but see it's your 5th so somebody else has likely welcomed you, if not welcome.
From your cost descriptions, it sounds like you are NOT a DIY, other wise the cost differential (see ebay listings of furnances, etc) would be a LOT less.
Since you are Canadian, you may not be facing $1 therm gas prices soon, otherwise it would be a no- brainer regardless of a few $K cost. If you can use a spreadsheet, do your own cost analysis looking up your areas weather data and degree days on the web.
If you WERE a DIY?, I'd suggest going with a ground source heat pump in your area.
FIY, I'm in Seattle area, heated 100% with wood for about $50 a year in chain saw gas and chains for 35 years till DW said she was too old to cut and split 7-10 cords a year, then installed an air-air heat pump --your wood route is good but watch out for age.
The way nat gas prices are going in the states, I just stacked a 4T air-air HP on top of my son's gas furnace for only $1300 TOTAL DIY. Don't know what the Canadian EPA equivalents to the Montreal protocol are, but in USA we are able to get a license to buy refrigerant if "not for hire" (and have the correct recovery equipment, $500 or less salvaged) for $25 US and pass an open book test over the internet.
Hi Gringo. I am in Toronto, Ontario Canada, not as cold as Edmonton, Alberta Canada.
Last year I put in a high efficiency furnace in my house and so far I can see a big difference in my gas bill. My house is very different than yours though, solid masonry, no wall insulation. I would say it's pretty tight.
You can ask your furnace guy to do a calculation to figure out the size of the furnace you need and the amount of gas you are expected to use. Then you can figure out the $ savings if you go for a high vs mid efficiency. Compare that to the extra initial outlay for the high efficiency furnace and figure out the return on your 'investment' over the number of years that you plan to live in the house, there you can see it for youself if you can do it better in the stock market and make the decision to go with the high efficiency furnace or not.
Oh, don't forget to project any future trend of gas price too.
I'm in Moose Jaw.Go with the high if it is a variable speed fan.You should save about 10% on gas, but will see a huge savings in electricity.Make sure it is sized properly.
what those guys said...
age is gonna get ya on the wood like junkhound said can change to a self feeding pellet stove at that time clean, easier, economical used to drop, saw, split, stack but there's a time to retire variable speed fan will cut electric like rich posted some start up on ac current, switch to dc once running get direct vent model, no drafts in house
if you have natural gas or propane, look into a Rinnai space heater if house layout conducive direct vents out wall pipe w fresh air intake pipe wrapped around the exhaust big cut in heating bills
Like Rich1 I saved on gas but really saved on electricity
Last December replaced my old gas forced air furnace with a high efficiency variable speed DC fan.
I leave the fan throughout the non heating season (yes we do have a non heating season) for air circulation purposes.
The old furnace had a two speed ac squirrel cage. I had a significant drop in both gas consumption and in electrical use. That old ac motor and squirrel cage consumed as much electrical power as does my old freezer.
High efficiency -- NOT
I bought a medium efficiency boiler. It ranks as 83% efficient. The ones over 90% have a history of corrosion on the heat exchangers, at least when I was doing my research.
We also made the mistake of getting a unit that was too large. It has an output of 95,000 BTU per hour, but as a consequence it never runs for more than 2-3 minutes at a time, even on very cold says. One of my projects is to add a 30 gallon buffer tank to the system so that it has a longer cycle time.
We have a 2500 square foot house. We burn about 6 cords of wood a year. The boiler heats zones. The bathroom zone runs regularlly, as does the hot water tank. Two zones in the hosue have never come on. (I replaced the thermostats with smart ones that record hours) One runs about 8 hours per year -- usually when we are on holiday and away from the house.
If you decide on circulating hot water to heat, do NOT believe the heat loss calculations. They correspond to leaky houses from the 50's. If I did it again, I would replace this unit with a 30,000 btu/hour hot water heater.
You're dredging up old threads. Kinda makes you appear foolish.