residental furnace question

[Bill]

Other than the ease of a direct swap-out, is there any compelling reason I couldn't or shouldn't put a 'standard' residental downdraft furnace in my house? It's currently got the standard issue Coleman/Evcon furnace. My home is a 1993 Dutch, so I would like to replace the furnace. It's located in the utility room, and as part of my ongoing renovations I have removed the closet walls from around it. I found a good deal on a Bryant downdraft furnace for about $250 less than a replacement Coleman unit, which is a 70,000 BTU. The Bryant is a 92,000 BTU, 80% efficiecy rating. Any advice & feedback is appreciated as usual.

[trmimo]

residential furnaces are not approved for manufactured home installations.
They typically do not meet hud requirements for fresh air intake.
(hud does not allow combustion air to come from the living space.)
Most residential furnaces are not approved for closet installations and hud requires the furnace to be in a closet.
If you install this furnace it will create a problem when you try to sell the house because it will be considered a hazard by an appraiser or home inspector.

[Bill]

Thanks for the reply, trmimo, your info cleared up a few questions. Sounds like a catch-22 from a HUD code standpoint, with regards to my wanting to (actually I already have) removed the closet walls from around the furnace and water heater. Presumably, this HUD code infraction would only be an issue if someone purchasing my house was going for HUD financing. A typical home inspector may or may not know the difference, and an appraiser more than likely would not know the difference, but it's still a gamble I suppose. I don't know why they would mandate this. My furnace has a 4" opening in the top where it presumably draws in it's 'combustion' air, but it's also got a huge louvered front pannel that opens into the same area of the furnace as this fresh-air intake. The way I see it, it's pulling in *maybe* 10% fresh air by volume.

[trmimo]

the 4" opening and the louvers in the front are for return air rather than combustion air.
And you are right about 10% of the return air is fresh air to improve indoor air quality.
The combustion air is actually drawn in through the outer chamber of the flue pipe.
It is s.o.p. for appraisers and inspectors to check gas burning appliances in manufactured homes to see if they are approved. This isn't something that will likely slide by an inspection, regardless of the financing type. their job is to insure that these kind of things haven't happened through the years since the home was built.
HUD requires the walls as a fire safety issue.

[Lewis C.]

THE WAY I SEE IT IF ITS GOING TO SAVE YOU ABIT OF $$$ AND NOT COMPRIMISE SAFETY. THEN WHY NOT? APPRAISERS FOR SURE WILL NOT MESS WITH THAT KIND OF STUFF AS LONG AS YOU HAVE YOUR INFO SHEET IN YOUR HOME THAT IS ALL THEY WILL LIKELY LOOK AT. THEY SEE SO MANY DIFFERENT ONES THEY REALLY DONT CARE AS LONG AS IT HAS A FURNACE. GOOD LUCK!

[trmimo]

Absolutely wrong.
I have had many trade ins and repos wher homeowner have done this kind of thing and I have had to change them back again in order to sell them.
Appraisers catch this stuff everyday.

[Lewis C.]

I 'll tell you one thing I changed mine and it was inspected and appraised 4 times since then and aint none of em said nothing about it!!!!! BOTTOM LINE IS ITS HIS HOME HE CAN DO AS HE PLEASES IT AMERICA!

[Yvonne]

Don't do it, I purchased a mobile home with a regular home furnace (I paid cash) but can not be insured because of the furnace. Should your ins. co. find out about this (heaven forbid after a fire) they will not pay the claim. Regular home furnaces are not equipped for mobile home use, there is not enough fresh air for combustion, causing a carbon monoxide hazard and it is also a fire hazard. I am currently pursing the company who installed the incorrect furnace for the price of a replacement.

Bottom line, it's not safe, ask any furnace manufacturer. Don't compromise your home and your family to save a couple hundred dollars.

Yvonne

[Lewis C.]

I THOUGHT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT A ELECTRIC FURNACE. SORRY GAS WOULD NOT BE A GOOD IDEA

[Pendragon]

Just FWIW.. the primary differences between a 'mobile home' appliance and any other is the differences in requirements for HUD standards as well as size, electrical, plumbing and ducting issue unique to mobile homes.

ALL furnaces have to meet a minimum combustion air rating, HUD simply requires that ALL combustion air come from outside, the 'national' standard is 50 cu ft of open room for each 1000 btu/h, at 80k btu, that's 4 million cu ft, more space than any pretty much any home would have (a 2400 sqft home has about 20k cu ft), so even site builts get thier combustion air from outside.

The difference is a mobile home is not *allowed* to get ANY combustion air from inside, regardless of heater size.