Furnace help

[Tip_922]

Hello,

This is my first time to these forums and everyone seems quite nice and helpful [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] . These boards seem to be a very friendly place with a wide selection of people from all over the place. I myself am from Western MD.

On to the help part:

I need some help with picking out a new furnace for the house that my wife and I purchased but I know nothing about furnaces [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] .

We currently have electric heat which neither of us likes, it does not heat very well and we are looking at buying a new oil furnace. Where the problem comes in is that I do not know how to calculate how many BTU's the furnace should be [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] , a friend of mine told me I probably need one that is about 100k BTU.

I would appreciate it if someone could explain to me how to do calculate this. I already read through some of the posts regarding this area and you all really seem to know what you are talking about. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

Thanks ahead of time for any help! [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[beenthere]

""I myself am from Western MD.""

Is that where your home is located? And what size home? Recent construction? 6" walls with good insulation? Insulated ceiling?

Oil - why?

New homes of 1500 sq ft probably get by easily with 100K btu's. Just size it to fit, but there are a lot of variables that go into the equation. Also a lot of new efficient furnaces to pick from.

My suggestion is to contact a local heating firm, and discuss it with them. Get some bids for installation, and if you are going to do it yourself, get some prices for different furnaces - gas and oil. I will never go back to oil. Too smelly (when I had to work on the furnace), if for no other reason.

Can't blame you from wanting to part with the electric heat. Good luck with your future decisions.

[Inspector507]

Here's a link to a free trial download of Manual J.......the calculator for heat loss and heat gain. Will tell you what size furnace you need.
Manual J

[Hakim]

Hi,

Welcome to CountryByNet!

If you are going to take out the existing electric and go to another form of heat, how will you get the heat thru the house? I assume it will be either oil- or natural gas-powered forced hot air.

If that is the case, you will need to have vents and ducts installed. For your size house, in addition to the furnace itself, this may add up to $2-5,000 to the cost. You will also need a chimney or code-approved vent for the furnace. More $$$ [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] .

Since you would incur the expense of ducting anyway, my suggestion would be to also get an estimate for a hot water baseboard heat system. This will require running the baseboard pipes. But once done, I can guarantee you will like it.

We have had all kinds, including heat exchange, solar, wood, oil furnace and others. By FAR, the hot water baseboard was the most efficient, cleanest, cheapest and most stable heat of all of them. I think if you ask around, most people who have got water baseboard will tell you they prefer it.

The latest furnaces are terrifically efficient. The top models are also quite reasonably priced. You can have it tie into your hot water heater too, which will save significant sums of money over the years.

The companies who you get estimates from will advise you on the size of furnace you need. We got enough "extra" capacity to accommodate planned future room expansions. The size of the furnaces today are very small, maybe 2 x 3 feet. And quiet!

If you wind up going with oil, make sure you do not bury the tank underground, if that is even permitted where you are. Either above ground or bring it inside.

Anyway, DO get 3 or 4 estimates. They will vary by thousands of dollars, rest assured. Go with the one who has a good local reputation, and preferably has been in business for 20 years or so. Unfortunately, there are hucksters and scammers in the home heating arena.

Good luck, and come back and ask more questions as you move thru the process.

All the best.

[Inspector507]

Another option to look at as well........
Since you have the electric installed for baseboard, there are water or oil filled baseboard heaters. They seem to heat a little more evenly. The element warms the oil and it circulates inside the heater. They will emit a good amount of heat even when the thermostat kicks off due to the oil being hot.. The ones here that we still utilize are made by International but they are old...maybe 20+ years, don't know if they still make them, but others do.
Much less expensive than a whole new heating system including duct work.

[Tip_922]

Wow, thanks for all of the quick and helpful replies, this is probably one of the quickect boards I've been on.

All ofthe suggestions have been good ones and I appreciate them all.

As for the size of the house I can post it later, but I don't have it on me right now.

As for the chimney; the house already has one, it was origanally had a furnace that was taken out and replaced with electric heat (unfortuneately when they took at the furnace they also removed the duct work).

The tank will be stored in my basement, we already have the tank. The duct work and the installation of the furnace will be done by myself, father-in-law and two or three friends of the family, two of which work for the local sheet metal union and do furnace and duct work for a living -- that will help keep down on the cost.

we just changed over from all electric to oil fired hot water on two floors and hydro air on the second. the house we just bought is 38 yrd old, 3400 sq ft, 4400 plus counting the cellar which is also, now heated. I notived one person said, no oil, ever again.. I can't agree with that person. Here in the New England area, propane gas costs much more than oil. Our other house that we just sold, had oil.. I had for different bids, and basically four different approaches from those installers. We chose a local htg contractor and went with a System 2000, with two "Modines" heating the cellar, hot water, the first floor is hot water baseboard, and the second floor is hydro air.. this home has no sheet rock in it and is 100% plaster. For this reason, I had to install a four inch schedule 30 pipe from the cellars ceiling through one coat closet, into our walk-in closet on the second floor. I laos had to install a pull down, folding stairs that I put in a fourth bedroom that isn't being used. With those two items done on my part, the crew came in. Hydro air is just like your car. Hot water pipes up through those four inch pipes into the hydro, which converts hot water over to hot air,w hich is blown down from vents installed in each room on the second floor..I fully expect to use 1200 or so gallons of oil.. When you see our three months electric bills from last winter season, you can appreciate 1200 gallons of oil even if it goes to two dollars per gallon. System 2000 is awesome, and we had three days below zero ambient, and I believe this past Friday was 48 below counting wind chill. All three floors hold right onto 71 degrees and we couldn't be happier with this system 2000..

[Tip_922]

Once again thanks for all the posts andthe help.

I did some calculations and I need a furnace with about 120,000 - 130,000 btu. My house is rather old and needs some work on it.

Can anyone suggest a good oil furnace, also I will be matching it up with a wood furnace as well.

[macdad]

I have been looking at "dual fuel" furnaces myself. Specifically, wood/LP combo. The manufacturers I've looked most seriously at offer oil/wood options as well. I haven't been able to track down anyone with personal experience with either of these, unfortunately. I just submitted a post in the home building section asking about this, amongst other things. The title of the post refers to solid core siding.
Try these websites:
www.charmaster.com
www.yukon-eagle.com

Hope this helps...