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QUESTION:I recently learned that my current furnace's heat exchanger is cracked and
need to replace the whole furnace, which is a 25 year old Lennox.
The guy who diagnosed this problem was not an HVAC contractor but a
weatherization contractor. The reason I mention this is not because I think
he misdiagnosed the problem (the heat exchanger is indeed cracked) but
because of what he told me about replacing it.
Specifically, he said that I should try and get a new high-efficiency
furnace installed (90%+ efficient) but that he was not sure I could install
one based on my particular HVAC setup. He seemed to be saying that a new
high efficiency furnace could not be vented into my chimney like my current
furnace is. Instead, it would need to be vented out the side of my house
and that code may not allow this.
Is this true? Why is this? I'm hoping someone can explain this to me
better than this guy did. He knew his stuff, but he was a real
techno-weenie who couldn't put things in simple terms. I mean, after all
the positive things I have heard about installing a high effic. furnace, why
would there be such limitations to installing one?
If it matters, I live in Minnesota in a 60 year old, 1-1/2 story house. My
chimney has a clay liner, but I had an aluminum liner installed inside of it
a year ago when I put in a new hot water heater.
ANSWER: Check the AFUE of the old ( probably 58-70 at best) bottom of line now is 80,
you can do the math pay back VS cost difference, around here is around an
$800.00 add for a 93 AFUE and we have mild winters, not a great pay back, your
contractor should be laying all that out for you if he is any good. IMHO pay
back should be 4 years and under.
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