I'll be in the market for a new gas furnace...

[Bushman]

Which ones should I be looking at? There is a $1,500. tax credit to put in a high efficiency gas furnace this year, so now will be a good time to start looking around. It is for my mom's house that has an old oil burning furnace in it now. I'm having a new gas line run this month. I put 92% efficient Carrier furnaces in my rentals, but then I heard that they had trouble with the heat exchangers cracking and the local dealer does not handle Carrier any more because of some additional problems. I put in a Weil-Mc Lain high efficiency gas boiler in my own house about 5 years ago and cut the heating bill by 40%. That oil burner at mom's is far from efficient using $5,500. in oil last year. It is time to upgrade. Thanks.

[ncboman]

some info;

http://www.aceee.org/consumerguide/heating.htm

ncboman

[LampLighter]

You will have to step up to a 95% gas furnace to come close to qualifiying for the tax credit. With the 95% furnaces, you have to pipe in fresh combustion air. You do that by way of a pvc pipe coming from outside. With Carrier, you will have to use either the performance line or the Infinity line.

I am a Carrier dealer and I have not heard anything about cracking heat exchangers. If you are still considering Carrier, let me know. I will switch over to my dealer access site and see what models DO qualify for the tax credit.

I HIGHLY suggest whatever furnace you get, make sure it is Two Stage. Those are very nice. I sell alot of Goodman GMH8 models. I sold Two Rheem Super Quiet 80% furnaces this week alone. 95% furnaces do NOT sell well in the South, because heat is not prioroty down here. Everybody dumps big $$$ into the A/C side.

[Altjaeger]

Lamp Lighter, sounds like business is good. :)

[LampLighter]

Yes. I am flooded with installs, and service. I had to resort to carrying around a calender with what I am to do each day. I'm sure it will eventually die off, but for the time being, I am humping it. Start a changeout Tuesday. Working tomorrow. Doing alot of "go behind others" type work. People are getting word of my work. My truck motto, and my business cards have a tag line of " Old School Values With Today's Technology.

Whatever I need, I just get from the supply houses. I don't have time to analyze. I just maintain some type of awareness that I am making a profit, and just roll. I almost went and bought a new truck this week, because my 92 Ford inline 6 was leaking oil in nice driveways . That is a no no. But this morning (Saturday) I fixed it. I changed the oil pan gasket.

[Bushman]

LampLighter, I was hoping that you would weigh in on this one. I think as much as anything what brought my own heating bill down so much with a higher efficiency boiler is the outside air. I got to looking at my old boiler and asked myself how can that be efficient? I'm pulling heated air from inside the house and blowing a lot of it out back through the stack with the exhaust gasses. Combined with the hot water system so that one boiler heats both the hydronic heating water and the house hot water for one exhaust stack helps too.

About three years ago, I got a notice in the mail saying that there was a class action law suit pending against Carrier for cracked heat exchangers on the same model gas forced air furnaces that I had two of. They are the 92% efficient models. I never explored it further only to ask about it with my dealer and he said that there was something like that and that they do not carry that brand any longer. I've never had any problem with them. A cracked heat exchanger on the old American Standard furnace is what caused me to get new ones in the first place.

[LampLighter]

If heat is priority where you are, and you use a gas furnace, I would go with the 95% furnace for sure. The old furnaces like Consilidated Industries, Rheem, Ducaine, etc. were 55 or 60 %. You'll see an input BTU and an Output Btu. They had to burn 100k to achieve 60k btu of usable heat.