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QUESTION:Conventional Gas
Total Annual Operating Costs: $629
High-efficiency Gas
Total Annual Operating Costs: $477
Assuming a $2,000 price difference
between the low and high effcy furnaces, it would take 13 years to
break even if you purchased the high efficiency furnace (per your
quoted example).
ANSWER: Not really. There's the small matter of the time value of money. Which
means, in simple terms, that you can invest the $2000 and pay the
difference in operating cost, never touching the principal. You never
'break even'.
Of course I paid maybe $1500 more (incl chimney liner) for my
high-efficiency furnace, and I'm saving $300 per year. That means I
come out ahead, assuming the furnace lasts 20 year, but I'm not ahead
by much. Of course the calculations are affected by the opportunity
cost assumed.
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