Coldest day of the year

[RobertSmalls]

I was trying to price out furnaces online... it's harder than pricing out EV batteries. Where do you buy furnaces? I struck out at Sears, Home Depot, and Lowes.

[Daox]

Sounds like you'll have to call around to the local HVAC shops?

[davranyou]

Originally Posted by Daox

Sounds like you'll have to call around to the local HVAC shops?

Agreed. I had three HVAC companies come and do quotes on the install and discuss the models and options when it was time to do mine.

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

I was trying to price out furnaces online... it's harder than pricing out EV batteries. Where do you buy furnaces? I struck out at Sears, Home Depot, and Lowes.

Check out the internet.. Google works for most stuff..

Here's one local hit..
Boston Heating Supply - Rheem, Teledyne Laars, Grundfos, Triangle Tube, Takagi at Low Prices

[RobertSmalls]

I took a peek in Rheem's product portfolio, and their ASHP and gas furnaces come in sizes starting around 42000BTU/hr / 8kW output. I also sent an e-mail to a local HVAC installer, but got no reply. I guess he's only interested in paying customers.

Xringer, that site has a good selection of boilers, but zero furnaces. I guess natural gas is more plentiful here than in New England.

If anyone comes across the Amazon dot com of natural gas furnaces, please do share.

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

...It's also the day of the year with the coldest infiltrating air...

Sounds like you're not so comfortable... sorry to hear that.

One thing about the coldest day, is that although it might seem like it, it really won't last forever.

Just out of curiosity, does your furnace have a source of outside air? If it doesn't, and it's running really hard, it is negatively pressurizing your house and sucking in all that cold air... just a thought.

Is this the house that you did a drawing of, that you are living in part of? I had a gas furnace and I had also reduced my living area quite a bit and it was so terribly out of balance that it was making me out of balance too.

I know that there are mini-splits now that are working down into the lower temperatures, lower than mine and Xringer's. A 12,000 BTU mini-split should easily handle 320 sq ft of space, if you have at least some insulation. They do not pressurize the building either.

If it was me, I'd go for a 12,000 BTU Fujitsu Halcyon 12RLS.

They say that you shouldn't go grocery shopping when your hungry... I suppose similar advice could apply here.

Good Luck,

-AC_Hacker

[RobertSmalls]

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

Sounds like you're not so comfortable... sorry to hear that.

It was definitively the house at its least comfortable. Not saying it's bad, just that I know I can do better, with a well-sealed house where air flows are set up in a deliberate manner.

The house's HVAC relies on lots of air infiltration. Infiltration is my only mechanism of ventilation, circulation, and providing combustion air for the gas stove, dryer, furnace, and water heater. The furnace and dryer negatively pressurize the basement, which leaks quite a bit anyway. I'm not sure about how the water heater's flue works.

[strider3700]

perhaps an air exchanger should come before a furnace then? My house is the same sucking air in through the cracks and then up the chimney or out the dryer. I've seriously considered them but $800 seems might expensive for a box of tubes and a couple of fans.

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by strider3700

I've seriously considered them but $800 seems might expensive for a box of tubes and a couple of fans.

It's actually more like $800 for a box of cross-stacked squares of chloroplast and a couple of fans.

There was some work done on this with some progress being made...

Maybe you'll be the guy who carries it over the finish line!

-AC_Hacker

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

Infiltration is my only mechanism of ventilation, circulation, and providing combustion air for the gas stove, dryer, furnace, and water heater.

Well, just in case you didn't think this one through already, if your major combustion appliance, mentioned above (primarily the furnace), are in their own room or closet, you could just provide an air inlet for them (maybe as easy as opening a vent-window in that room), it would help reduce your forced-infiltration. I think that all the new combustion appliance with the exception of cooktops now require external supply air.

-AC_Hacker

P.S.: If you are still considering a new heating unit, the mini-splits have a self-pumpdown mode which pumps all of the refrigerant back into the outside unit, so that you can take it with you to your next house. Can't do that with a gas furnace.

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