I am considering replacing the original oil fired forced hot air furnace in my 19 year old raised ranch. The living space was approxiamately 1200 square feet when built and has been increased to approx. 1800 square feet.
If I replace furnace should it be larger than present 84,000 BTU?
What brands are reliable and efficient?
Replies
Does the current furnace keep the house warm? What kind of efficiency does it have? What kind of efficiency will the new one have?
Generally accepted wisdom around here is to choose your service company, then follow their advice as to type/brand/etc.
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"I may have said the same thing before... But my explanation, I am sure, will always be different." Oscar Wilde
Thanks for your input
I will inquire re: efficiency.
You need to calculate the heatloss to be sure. I doubt that you will need a larger one though. The newer windows and insulation are better than they were 19 years ago. Back then that was about the smallest oil unit you could get so it was probably oversized to begin with.
Yesterday I couldn't even spell plumber, today I are one.
Thanks for your input regarding furnace size
First of all keep in mind I'm not heating engineer, and neither is your local heating contractor unless you are fortunate. You can do a quick BTU take off, calculations are available in a Grainger catalogue, a lot of heating take these numbers add 25-50% and say this is what you need to heat your home. Most systems are oversized but up here especially considering this winter past, I hope, I would rather be over than under.Just makes me wonder how many BTUs in our energy rich nation (pun) we are wasting. To give an example 4 years ago we had our steam boiler replaced in our 30,000 sq/ft 3 story church the old one was physicaly the size of a bedroom with 10' ceilings asbestos and all, with 2 boilers sized at 1/2 the BTUs each, so far we have not had to run both at once just 1 at a time and that has been adequate. But if you really want to know, do a take off or pay the big bucks for an engineer.
Thanks for your input re: furnace size
Being a heating engineer is not a plus. They oversize their systems grossly. At least most of them do. I know a few who have a clue.