new house furnace

[Jericho99]

Hi everyone,

Was wondering if anyone ever heard of a bylaw that requires your furnace to be upgraded once you pass 2300 sqft when building a new place. Cardel says this is a requirment and have to upgrade to at least a zoned type furnace or 2 furnaces. And what would be the better choice... 2 furnaces = 4800, zoned = 2600.

Thanks.

[quazimoto]

No it's not a bylaw. They do recommend either a larger furnace or two furnaces since typically the furnace they will sell you with your home will be rated at X number BTU and usually it's good for a little more than the house.

When I was living in Sask we had a 1400 Sq foot house and the furnace was rated to around the 3500 mark.

[barmanjay]

don't cheap out on a furnace with a bigger space, you'll notice it alot in winter.

A smaller furnace will work harder and not pump enough heat - shorter life

[riceboi]

Originally posted by Jericho99
Hi everyone,

Was wondering if anyone ever heard of a bylaw that requires your furnace to be upgraded once you pass 2300 sqft when building a new place. Cardel says this is a requirment and have to upgrade to at least a zoned type furnace or 2 furnaces. And what would be the better choice... 2 furnaces = 4800, zoned = 2600.

Thanks.
If later you want to install A/C system, zoned would need 1 A/C but 2 furnaces would require 2 A/C.

[quazimoto]

That's not true. It depends on your setup. Typically you get 1 furnace for the upstairs and 1 for the basement. I've never seen a basement that really needs A/C. You'd only need A/C times 2 if you wanted the A/C in both areas.

You can easily get a single furnace that can give you heat for your house though. Just ask the builder for a larger furnace that has more BTU's and is properly rated for the home. It really depends on what the "standard" furnace they include is. I believe with most builders its 2200 SQ feet.

[Jericho99]

riceboi is not completely wrong, I do not think you need 2 units however I do know that is is about 50% more expensive to install ie perhaps extra duct work to connect to both furnaces. One furnace typically services the basement and main floor and a smaller one does the 2nd level in a 2 story house which are the norm these days.

Thanks for all the input going to see if they can upgrade to a single more powerful furnace... does anyone know if the one that comes "standard" on 2200 sqft houses are the biggest available? I would rather go with one bigger as it wouldnt require electronically controlled ducts that will probably fail in the zoned system that they offered.

[lint]

Originally posted by Jericho99
riceboi is not completely wrong, I do not think you need 2 units however I do know that is is about 50% more expensive to install ie perhaps extra duct work to connect to both furnaces. One furnace typically services the basement and main floor and a smaller one does the 2nd level in a 2 story house which are the norm these days.

Thanks for all the input going to see if they can upgrade to a single more powerful furnace... does anyone know if the one that comes "standard" on 2200 sqft houses are the biggest available? I would rather go with one bigger as it wouldnt require electronically controlled ducts that will probably fail in the zoned system that they offered.

I've got two furnaces and was checking into AC. One AC unit per furnace is what I was told by multiple installers. But, installing it for the top floor + fan circulation + cold air coming down should be able to provide al your cooling needs. And everyone recommend keeping 2 furnaces as well, better control and comfort long run. Really allows us to turn down the heat for the upstairs during the day when no one is up there, while still maintaining a comfortable main floor.

[riceboi]

Originally posted by quazimoto
That's not true. It depends on your setup. Typically you get 1 furnace for the upstairs and 1 for the basement. I've never seen a basement that really needs A/C. You'd only need A/C times 2 if you wanted the A/C in both areas.

You can easily get a single furnace that can give you heat for your house though. Just ask the builder for a larger furnace that has more BTU's and is properly rated for the home. It really depends on what the "standard" furnace they include is. I believe with most builders its 2200 SQ feet.

What you want to do and what you should do is two different things. Most of the houses that have A/C in Spring valley have two A/Cs. I've talked to several A/C installers and they said the same thing. One A/C per furnace. I guess it's for efficiency purpose. You don't want your A/C to run all the time to keep the house cool. It's the same reason why you have two furnaces in the first place.

[quazimoto]

Oddly enough none of the show homes I've seen have two A/C's. They always have the A/C attached to the furnace which heats the upper levels of the house and normally the basement furnace is left alone.

I know our builder beattie homes told us the exact same thing. That if we wanted to develop our basement we'd need a second furnace. The way it was billed was for one A/C on the main furnace and no A/C on the second furnace. Why in the world would you want to have A/C in the basement? In reality a huge waste of energy and money.

[lint]

Originally posted by quazimoto
Oddly enough none of the show homes I've seen have two A/C's. They always have the A/C attached to the furnace which heats the upper levels of the house and normally the basement furnace is left alone.

I know our builder beattie homes told us the exact same thing. That if we wanted to develop our basement we'd need a second furnace. The way it was billed was for one A/C on the main furnace and no A/C on the second furnace. Why in the world would you want to have A/C in the basement? In reality a huge waste of energy and money.

I don't think it's one furnace for above grade and a second for below grade, at least not in my house. one furnace for the top floor, one furnace for the main floor and basement. so to really cool the entire house would require two ac units

[Masked Bandit]

DO NOT GO WITH THE ZONE SYSTEM.

Cardel stuck us with this piece of shit set up and it does a piss poor job. Pay the extra to go with the two furnace / AC setup. My oversized AC can't keep up in the summer because it's always switching from upstairs to main.

[iksnipus]

Cardel Homes will sucker you into buying any upgrades from them. Just try to get them to come back and fix their mistakes.

Go with the 2 furnace set up, friends have it in their house and it makes a world of difference if you have hot and cold spots.

Cardel Homes are NOT quality built like they say.