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Oil Furnace Repair Seattle
QUESTION:It looks as if I need a new chimney for my oil furnace, as ours is
blocked and there's no way to get at the flue, which bends and then snakes
under a concrete pad to the furnace -- what they call a "rabbit run." A
mason will be glad to build us a new brick chimney for many thousands of
dollars. But our oil furnace man said we could run a special, very
expensive 4-ply pipe out the wall where the furnace is (about 10 feet away
from the original chimney) and up through the roof. The code just demands
that it be 2 inches from any combustible material. Then I could build a
soffit around it, so it would blend in with the house. This would be about
$1200, cheaper than either:
1. building a second chimney alongside the first one. It would also look
better, since the new bricks would not match the old ones
2. rebuilding the old chimney, since we'd have to dig up the rabbit run and
run a new pipe from the furnace, which is costly and inefficient, and part
of the original problem.
Does anyone know about this alternative?
ANSWER: my chimney just broke too -- what a coincidence. If you have a
really old oil furnace, you might want to consider another option,
which is to switch to gas now. You're talking $500 to remove an
in-ground oil tank and about $3500 for a 90% efficient gas furnace,
which can use a much cheaper alumninum vent pipe. The cost of running
in a gas line varies by your projected gas usage, but is often free or
minimal. Gas (plus a pipe fee) runs around $0.93 a therm and oil is
$1.40 a gal or $1.00 a therm. The best oil efficiency is 83%, so a 90%
eff gas furnace is a bit cheaper for now ($1.03 vs $1.20 per therm of
actual heat).
In my case, I think it is not worth it since our chimney repair is
only about $1000, but worth a thought.
If you're fixing the chimney, I'd say call around some more. It is
possible to put a bladder down a chimney and use it to mold poured
concrete to line the chimeny, which may work in your case. Try Greater
NW Chimney Service, who do this proceedure.
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