Savings - replacing furnace

[speedog]

My furnace is 30+ years old, efficiency probably probably wasn't even a consideration when it as built but I suspect it's still worth it to keep it going. To date, I've replaced one motor in the past 20 years and a belt at the same time just because.

[eblend]

Originally posted by speedog
My furnace is 30+ years old, efficiency probably probably wasn't even a consideration when it as built but I suspect it's still worth it to keep it going. To date, I've replaced one motor in the past 20 years and a belt at the same time just because.

My parents old house was like that as well. Replace the motor and they were good to go again. Hell those were so simple back then, you didn't even need to have the exact same motor or anything like that, just find the proper voltage and amp rating and you are good to go. Now everything is proprietary.

[relyt92]

Originally posted by speedog
My furnace is 30+ years old, efficiency probably probably wasn't even a consideration when it as built but I suspect it's still worth it to keep it going. To date, I've replaced one motor in the past 20 years and a belt at the same time just because.

My parents house has the original furnace from ~1985. Hasn't had any major services in the last 20 years. I doubt it's efficient at all but it seems to work fairly well.

[Impreza]

Thanks! Tons of great info here. I guess I will be hanging onto my existing furnaces for as long as possible.

[speedog]

Originally posted by ZenOps
Coldest winter month (January) for a large house is somewhere on the order of 23GJ , going from a 60% to a 90% will probably save you about 8GJ on that month.

If natgas is around $3 per GJ, you probably didn't burn the extra $24. Realistically its probably around a $120 difference per year.

Add in that HE furnaces usually need some sort of maintenance every other year that usually costs around that much - it pretty much nullifies any savings.

But.. You can feel a little better about having a smaller carbon footprint.

This thread got me a thinking and so I looked back at a year's worth of my natural gas bills and the scenario you describe pretty much nails my house to a tee.

I did comparisons between what a 60% efficiency furnace (what mine probably is) and a 90% model and my savings on natural gas costs would have been whopping $118.21 and in reality it would've been a few dollars less because I did not remove any numbers for my water heater.

Now considering that we just had a 90% efficiency furnace installed at my uncle's place and the cost for that was around $3,500 (if I recall correctly), it would take me almost 30 years at current natural gas prices to recoup my outlay for a new furnace.

And like others have pointed out, maintenance costs on a new furnace are probably quite a bit more than my old clunker so that payback period stretches out even further.

So the math just isn't there as I most likely won't be in this home at the end of those 30 years and I would dare say that that $3,500 invested wisely elsewhere will provide better returns at the end of those 30 years.

The marth, it really does work out this time.

[mr2mike]

Old "clunker" furnaces are easy to maintain and fix.
Speedog, no one runs the #s. They're sold on the fact it's a new technology heating apparatus.


I still reiterate, anyone getting rid of their old furnace PM me. I'll come pick it up.

[speedog]

If I factor in $50 a year for the water heater then the furnace payback period pushes out to just over 50 years and that's still not counting in any increased maintenance costs.

Man, am I ever going to have fun with those door to door and call center furnace people.

[Darell_n]

The cost of a new 90%+ unit plus service is greatly outpacing the cost of fuel, compared to when high efficiency units came on the market. In 10 years it could very well be a 100 year ROI to upgrade a furnace, if the government doesn't interfere further. But if they do, the cost is just hidden in your taxes anyway.

[Darell_n]

Right from the Alberta energy efficiency news letter I just received:

"A good definition of energy efficiency is, “using less energy to provide the same benefit.” Essentially, being energy efficient means our lives run the same way—but more affordably."

It's nice they are flat out lieing right to our faces.

[ExtraSlow]

I try to live my life so that I'm being dollar-efficient, which occasionally means being energy efficient, but not always.