Have to buy a new furnace

[Mitch]

We are heating our Connecticut House (2500 sq ft) with propane. The furnace is ten years old. The expert on our model says it is only a matter of time before it totally breaks. We usually end up spending a few hundred dollars on it per year.
He is recommending switching to oil. We are on a payment plan for the gas (200 dollars a month). He said it would cost around 8,000 to put in the new furnace. Do you happen to have any recommendations? For example heat pumps. Or would this be even more cost prohibitive?

[Bob]

Hello Just click on the link below and this will give you some information on what you might need. $8000.00 is kinda to much money. You can find your information on your furnace. You probably have 80,000 or 100,000 BTU. If you are doing a direct replacement on furnace only. This is just a simple change out you can do this in four to eight hours. I would stay with the Propane my self it is cleaner. If you ever get Natural gas you only have to change the gas orifice & Regulator.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=41987

[rmurray]

Run from this guy...$8000 for a furnace is silly...It is true that your furnace is reaching the end of it economic life...Best news is that the newer gas furnaces are much more efficient than the old...

Heat pumps are usually electric...they are most efficient when the temperature is above 32...when below 32...backup heat strips heat the home and are not very efficient for cold weather climates...I would probably stick with gas...

You might check out..

http://www.propanecouncil.org/trade/man ... dustry.htm

www.energystar.gov

[jgn]

We just put two new 3 ton Lenox airconditioners and furnances in our primary house and it cost $8500 so what you are being quoted is way over the top. I had oil in a house once and it burned dirty and was messy to have around plus you would need a different holding tank. The price of oil will vary much the same as propane so I see no reason to go with oil. If I had the choice I would go with natural gas than propane, than electric last oil and never heat pump.

[Bill]

This guy actually recommended OIL heat?? He's obviously on crack. Propane is much cleaner, healthier, and desirable than oil. LOL! I didn't know they even still sold oil furnaces. I would have to agree that 8-large is way out of line for heat. I'm assuming you don't have natural gas available since you have propane, but natural gas is even cleaner and more cost-efficient than propane.

[Paula Slocum]

$8,000 is way too high. My husband and I are in upstate New York. When we moved into our modular doublewide in 1994 we heated with propane and the cost was just about killing us. Like you we were paying about $200 per month and that was year round. $2400 for heat for the year was way to high. So in 1996 we changed our furnace over to kerosene. The reason we did not go with oil is because our tank is outside and the kerosene does not gel up in these cold winters we tend to have up in the north. Our heating bill went from $2400 a year to about $1000 or $1200.

We are presently looking to replace our furnace now too. Just starting to look around for what would be best.

[JoAnne L.]

Wow Paula, you really paid through the nose with your propane. We live in northern Michigan where we get plenty of snow and sub zero temps just like you , we have a 500 gal propane tank, we are on equal monthly payments of $132/mo and have a nice credit built up on our bill so should not have to pay at the end of the contract. Yeah, I agree with everyone about natural gas being so clean, but cheap?? All I've heard from friends downstate and all around who have nat. gas is how expensive it has become. My sister went from a $125/mo bill last year to $300/mo this year - and she has a huge fireplace in use every night. Nah, I think I'd stick with propane even if I could change to nat. gas.