Replace furnace or supplement with pellet stove (1 Viewer)

[tmyers]

Get some opinions on this one. My house is old (built around 1930), so it doesn't retain heat very well (need to gut and redo the insulation and replace windows). However, our furnace is a really old Lennox Pulse. This thing is I believe older then I am (I am 30). It struggles to keep the house warm once the temperature dips into the teens.

Should I just suck it up and shell out the 7ish grand to get a brand new one installed? Or my other thought was buy a forced air pellet stove to use for in tangent with the furnace to help relieve the stress of it constantly running to keep up. A pellet stove is half the cost of a new furnace, and in the event the furnace were to just flat out die, should be able to heat the house by itself.

Give me some of that wisdom you folks have lol

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

If you put in a new furnace powerful enough to heat the house in its current condition, then it will be redundant once you have improved the insulation.

So it sounds like to me that if you were to add an extra furnace of some description, especially if it met the requirement to heat your house when you have the anticipated insulation, then that might be a reasonable option.

 

[NauticalGent]

(need to gut and redo the insulation and replace windows).

Until that is done all you are doing is treating symptoms. If finances are not limitless (who's is??) then I would attack this area first. Small, inexpensive space heaters could be used when its really cold.

Being from the south, normally an efficient heat-pump suffices during the winter with an occasional assist from LP back-up. I do not know enough about pellet stoves to weigh in. My brother lived in Wisconsin for a while and he swears by them...

 

[tmyers]

If you put in a new furnace powerful enough to heat the house in its current condition, then it will be redundant once you have improved the insulation.

So it sounds like to me that if you were to add an extra furnace of some description, especially if it met the requirement to heat your house when you have the anticipated insulation, then that might be a reasonable option.

I like the thought of having a secondary system that could be used without power (or utilize a smaller generator). The current system is gas, so it still falls within that due to the fact a small generator just has to power the blower and ignitor.

My last months bill, the furnace cost ~$15 a day in gas. Thats pretty nutty with how much and how inefficiently it ran.

 

[tmyers]

Until that is done all you are doing is treating symptoms. If finances are not limitless (who's is??) then I would attack this area first. Small, inexpensive space heaters could be used when its really cold.

Being from the south, normally an efficient heat-pump suffices during the winter with an occasional assist from LP back-up. I do not know enough about pellet stoves to weigh in. My brother lived in Wisconsin for a while and he swears by them...

I'm in the northern part of Ohio and it gets pretty cold consistently year after year. I installed a few baseboards last year in a couple of the problem rooms, but the poor furnace just doesn't fulfil its job anymore.

I probably just need to talk with my HVAC guy and see what he says.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Our house was built in 1957 it had the original attic furnace and double hung wood sash windows. I replaced both, but I have to say the thing that made the biggest improvement for us was installing modern windows. We replaced about 20 including a sliding glass door. Once we did that there was a huge difference even with an older furnace.

Good luck with your project.

 

[moke123]

I'm in the mountains of western Ma. and have used my pellet stove exclusively to heat my house for the last 15 years. I burn about a bag a day ($5.00) A little more when it hits the negatives.

 

[tmyers]

Our house was built in 1957 it had the original attic furnace and double hung wood sash windows. I replaced both, but I have to say the thing that made the biggest improvement for us was installing modern windows. We replaced about 20 including a sliding glass door. Once we did that there was a huge difference even with an older furnace.

Good luck with your project.

I do have a couple problem windows, but I am apprehensive on replacing them just yet as we need to do some structural repairs to the house before replacing them, as the house has a nasty sag in the center that needs to be corrected. I would be worried if we put in new windows and reframed and such, they could all potentially break and/or need to be redone once the sag is removed/corrected. Would be a simple fix if the house had a basement.