<p>Just got the bad news that my oil furnace is officially dangerous and must be replaced. Brands that have been mentioned are Armstrong, Carrier, Trane, Lennox. Any advice on brands?</p>
<p>We installed a Lennox HVAC in the mid-1990s (gas fired for heat) and it’s run since then with no maintenance other than changing filters every three months. The change, combined with replacing our roof with high-efficiency vents, cut our heating and cooling costs in half. Of course prices have creeped back up since then as energy costs have risen but our peak bills today are still lower than they were before we made the HVAC and roof changes.</p>
<p>Note that this is NG whereas you are using HO (my assumption that you’re not changing fuel types).
We also received some money from the gas company for the upgrade. I think that there are some Federal credits or deductions for energy efficiency right now so you might be able to get some savings there.</p>
<p>Thanks BC. </p>
<p>I wish I could change to gas but we have no gas hookup in this area so I’m stuck with oil. I think there is a tax credit of up to $1500 available for efficient models. It’s confusing because the Lennox people will tell you not to touch a Carrier and the Carrier people tell you the opposite. I haven’t found one company that sells them all and then I also want to go with a company with a good service reputation. I’m reading some online reviews too.</p>
<p>Worry more about efficiency rating than name. Get the most energy efficient (look for the Energy Star rating) one you can within your budget. In some cases, you are paying more for a name like Lenox and Carrier because of the marketing and advertising costs.</p>
<p>From the furnace pros and techs I’ve talked with, most will agree it’s the burner and controls that “make” the unit. The consensus is that Beckett burners and Honeywell controls are typically the most worry-free.</p>
<p>Another trick is to ask the contractor what he’d put in his own house.</p>
<p>We put in an Energy Kinetics System 2000 almost 15 years ago and it reduced our fuel usage by 40% and that’s including heating our hot water.</p>
<p>I asked the repair guy who pronounced my furnace dead what brand he recommends. He recommends Armstrong - says he likes the simpler models best - less to go wrong. I don’t they are the most efficient though. It appears that in order to get the tax credit, the rating has to be 90 or above. There is no listing of an oil furnace that high, however, so perhaps there are no oil furnaces that qualify for the tax credit.</p>
<p>We replaced our furnace in our old house (which had been York) with one of the name brands (which of course I have forgotten - could have been carrier, lennox, trane or rheem). Anyway, the plumber who did the work said that the SEER was important (at that time I think it was 12 - now it goes higher), and at that time (now more than a dozen years ago), it was so much better than the old one. Before oil prices went way up, we saved quite a bit for a couple of seasons. </p>
<p>Where we live for a couple of hundred dollars a year the oil company gives a service warranty. It also included an annual cleaning. We only had one service call for a problem in about 12 years, and I knew that it was burning “clean”. If you have this type of service from your supplier, I would recommend it.</p>
<p>anothermom - that was the service that I had today in which the problem was found. I had noticed at the end of last season that there was just a little soot around the furnace and near some of the vents. I tried to convince myself it was normal, but I knew better. I had forgotten to mention it to the service person until I the heard the ominous “ma’am, could you come down her please?” Then he asked if I had noticed any soot and showed me how hot the outer shell of the furnace was. Thank goodness I had the inspection or the thing would have probably smoked up the entire house at some point.</p>
<p>There might not be oil furnaces that qualify for the tax credit. We learned ours was dead over the summer, and our new one goes in tomorrow. We got a Carrier oil furnace, but we also got a heat pump (Carrier also) - which we will get the credit for. We are going to try to use the heat pump for the milder days, and use the oil as backup. Our climate is not great for heat pumps, but they have come a long way in the last 10 years, so I’m hopeful it will work out.</p>
<p>We had looked seriously into going with geothermal, but it was estimated at > 3x what the oil furnace and heat pump combo will cost, and we were not sure about the payback. Tax credit still did not make it appealing to us. We also could not find enough people in our area who had geothermal to see what their experience has been.</p>
<p>I upgraded Mom’s oil heat to a heat pump with the oil heat as backup. We also had to upgrade the windows at the same time, which I did without too much trouble. </p>
<p>I would look into a propane system. You can buy the propane when the pricing is low and store it at no cost. There is also less chance of supply chain disruptions.</p>
<p>buy from the biggest company you can find so that you can complain to the CEO if the thing is a bust.</p>
<p>The presence of soot may not indicate a replacement need. Oil furnaces work on a nozzle adjusted to provide for the best efficiency and combustion. It is my belief that many of the oil companies who service these burners wind up changing out the nozzle in order to maximize oil consumption. In that case, you get an incomplete, dirty burn, and non combusted oil particles in the form of soot wind up slowly deteriorating the system. </p>
<p>[Warmair.com</a> - Oil Burners](<a href=“http://www.warmair.com/html/oil_burners.htm]Warmair.com”>Warmair.com - Oil Burners)</p>
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<p>Sadly, I think it is common practice for the service people to change out these nozzles, which uses more oil. The reason is probably minimization of service calls for clogged nozzles, but I’m not sure. I had a new oil burner installed several years ago which ran soot free until after the first annual service checkup. Its been sooty ever since.</p>
<p>dadx - that’s depressing to think that the oil company who services the burner adjusts it to use more oil. Not surprising, but depressing. The soot was just one issue with this unit. It is 30 years old and when I felt how hot it got on the outside of the unit after only running for a short time, it was clear there was a problem. </p>
<p>The company I like the best is not an oil company so they would install but not service so that wouldn’t solve the problem with nozzle adjustment. They were much more complete in their inspection and pointed out other issues - like condensation and corrosion marks on the duct work, and they showed me a baffle device that re-directs the air that I never knew was there. They thought that my chimney should be inspected because of the condensation evidence. I would like to use them, but they are much more expensive. They warned me that non-oil company vendors would be more expensive since they won’t be involved in continuing profits of oil delivery.</p>
<p>ok If you’re using a 30 year old furnace, then it was post-energy-crisis, but not by much. A new one should help you with efficiency.</p>
<p>If you are a compulsive researcher, you can go onto google groups and search for “brand X oil burner” and see what comes up on the hvac sites for each of the ones you’re considering. Sometimes you can get an idea of any persistent problems.</p>
<p>I would buy the furnace with the longest warranty that had the highest efficiency rating. Even if you pay more upfront, you’re going to make it up almost immediately in cost savings. </p>
<p>As for contractors, I have done so many remodels that I know have a method for hiring contractors. First, they better show up on time for the appointment. If they then can draw up a competent estimate on the spot I know they have lots of experience. I want them to tell me they done this kind of job multiple times before, and I want to make sure they understand when to tell me NOT to save money and when it’s okay to scrimp. I like the sound of your contractor who told you about the whole system and told you to have the chimney inspected. He might save you a lot of money in the long run. Does he have a service company he recommends?</p>
<p>I assumed I would keep the current oil company as the service company. I just had a long talk with the contractor I like and he can’t get near the price that the oil company gave me for the furnace, but he was great about listing everything that I need to go over with others. The problem is that I will have to sell the house if my business doesn’t pick up soon so I may very well not be here to recoup costs and I am in a situation now that I have to be thrifty. The furnaces in the two estimates at this point are comparable and both are at the top of efficiency rating for oil furnaces - not nearly as many choices for oil as for gas and the efficiency ratings are all below 90. I know more now and can be proactive with whomever does the work. I will ask about the condensation and know to look for it, and I can make sure they at least eyeball the chimney to see if there are obvious leaks - cap off,etc. I’ll call the roofer to look at it up top. I will also make sure I see inside the duct work to make sure the baffle works so I can direct more air upstairs during the summer. </p>
<p>The contractor I like is from the company that services my AC so they will come in after the furnace is replaced to make sure that nothing was done to impact the AC.</p>
<p>Edited to add - Dadx - I am a compulsive researcher and I have looked at lots of things online including a couple of forums moderated by techs in the industry.</p>