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Heating & Air Conditioning

Must I replace my furnace

15 years ago

To make a really long story short. I recently moved into my fathers house and determined the following:

I originally was concerned because the heat was not working properly. I called in two HVAC companies and both wanted to charge me $$$ for a new furnace. I called public service and he determined that my hot water heater and my furnace were both connected via 4 inch pipe to my 4 inch chimney liner. He turned off my heat because he said this was not code and that it was backing Carbon Minoxide and backing up into my furnace. I was told I need to either reline the chimney with a larger pipe, get a self venting hot water heater (I just put in a new one less than one week ago) or replace my furnace that is 14 years old. These are my choices.

In addition, a new furnace is not going to solve my comfort problems because the duct work is not great.

Do I have any options besides spending $5K on a new furnace. and yes, I realize I can spend $1500 to rebuild the chimney liner but I was told that may create more problems and then I still have a furnace that is 15 years old. Or I can spend another $1500 on self venting hot water heater but I just replaced it and then again I will still have a 15 year old furnace and some HOT rooms and some real cold?

If anyone has any thoughts or Ideas that would be much appreciated. The $5k includes changing the air conditioning coil as well as a high effieciency furnace.

thanks in advance for reading my DILEMA !!!!

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Comments (2)

tk03
15 years ago
Although a new furnace is more efficient it will not fix you problems as you stated. How high is the chimney and what is the input of both appliances? The chimney height is the determining factor here. I would consider power venting the furnace if possible through a sidewall. When it fails use the same location for venting the new 90+ efficient model.
danw13
15 years ago
The height of the chimney has nothing to do with the fact that you can not vent both up the chimney, it needs to be able to vent the right amount of air so both pieces of equipment will vent properly. Based on the total number of BTU's total your venting you have to have X amount of square inches of venting for both. If the furnace you currently have is a condensing furnace 90% or better you can or maybe able to have the furnace vent to the outside using PVC piping, which will save you $1500 and should only cost a few hundred to have done. If your furnace is less than 90% and the fact that is is 14 yrs old now would be the time to upgrade with a VS 96% AFUE furnace that has a ECM blower motor will save a huge amount on your electrical as well as alittle on the NG monthly bills. Besides that when the Stimulas bill is signed into law provided you have quailifing equipment installed there is a Tax credit of up to 30% to a maximum of $1500 per piece of equipment as a Tax credit for the 2009-2010 tax years which would cut your install cost nearly in half. And with the ECM blower motor and a 2 stage furnace will give you all the comfort you'll need to keep your house temp even thru out your home, and as I said before the ECM motor will cost you no more than what it cost to have a 40 watt left on 24/7, which generally speaking should not be more than $5 or $6 a month equates to pennies/day !!
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