So, I haven't posted in a while because my car is behaving wonderfully since I replaced the head gaskets last year. However, I'd like some public opinion if you folks could be so kind. I'm buying a house in NE and it's got an old octopus gravity furnace. The furnace needs "safety inspection" and I'm certain it needs work, so I'm doing a rehab loan to get the HVAC updated prior to move in, and I'd like to get some quotes. Job essentially entails removal of the old furnace, asbestos abatement for ductwork, installation and ductwork for the new unit and adding central air to the mix. Anybody have any recommendations of companies they've had good luck with or companies to avoid? Friends and family in the business? Any and all input is welcome and appreciated!
That will be a pretty penny, my father and father in-law both do this for a living. You will more than likely have to have 2 seperate companies come in. 1 - to remove the asbestos and the other to do the actual ducting and hvac install. There are some considerations you will need to look at. The size of your house. Wether you will be installing a new or used unit. Since your financing this endevore, you will probably be going new. Here is some infor I found on the net that will give you more of an idea... Remember to shop around and most will price match. Look into a good warranty. The one's from the gas co. are kinda crappy. That’s a great question, and it requires answers to a few more questions before we can provide an accurate answer. 1. What’s your climate? Find a map online that divides the country up into 5 climate zones. If you can’t find one, here’s a quick sketch from warmest to coldest. Zone 1: The Gulf coast states including TX, and the desert regions of AZ and CA. Zone 2: The mid-south (KY, TN, northern AL & GA, the Carolinas. Zone 3: The southern Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic states, southern parts of the lower Plains states. Zone 4: The northern Ohio Valley Mid-Atlantic states, northern NE, IA and CO, and the Pacific Northwest. Zone 5: The northern Rocky Mountain, Plains and Great Lakes states, New England 2. What’s a Btu? This abbreviation stands for British Thermal Units and is a measurement of heat that furnace manufacturers use to specify how much heat their furnaces can create per hour. Now, here are the number of Btu’s per square foot that you will need in each zone to effectively keep your home warm and toasty. Zone 1: 35 Btu’s per square foot; Zone 2: 40 Btu’s per square foot; Zone 3: 45 Btu’s per square foot; Zone 4: 50 Btu’s per square foot; Zone 5: 60 Btu’s per square foot. Stay with this, we’re almost there! 3. Can you do some math? Multiply the square footage of your home by the Btu’s you need per square foot and you are one step away from knowing what size furnace you will need to heat a 2000 square foot home. Your math will look like this example: If you live in Zone 1, the warmest, your equation would be 2000 (sq. ft) x 35 (Btu per square foot) =70,000 Btu’s needed to heat your home. You would need a furnace that can deliver 70,000 Btu’s per hour (but that’s NOT your final answer. Read on!) Zone 1: 70,000 Btu Zone 2: 80,000 Btu Zone 3: 90,000 Btu Zone 4: 100,000 Btu Zone 5: 120,000 Btu 4. How efficient is the furnace you plan to install? No furnace is 100% efficient. In other words, no furnace uses every Btu it creates to heat your home. An 80% efficient furnace uses 80% of the Btu’s it produces to heat your home and loses 20% through exhaust. A 90% efficient furnace uses 90% of the Btu’s it produces to heat your home. Furnaces come in a range of efficiencies. Standard is 80%. Then there is a jump to 90%. From there, it can be any number, up to about 97% which is the current maximum on the market. This is where a second equation comes in. Multiply the efficiency of the furnace you plan to use by its capacity, and that will determine how many usable Btu’s it produces. For example, a 100,000 Btu furnace with 95% efficiency (100,000 x 95%) will provide 95,000 usable Btu’s per hour. So, applying this math to your 2,000 square foot home, let’s look at some examples. If you live in zone 1, you need 70,000 Btu’s in your 2000 square foot home to keep it comfortably warm. A 90,000 Btu furnace that is 80% efficient (90,000 x 80%) will produce 72,000 Btu’s of usable heat per hour, almost exactly what you need. We’ll use 3 common efficiencies, 80%, 90% and 95%, to show you what size furnace you’ll need for each of these efficiency levels in your zone. We’ll round off the size of the furnace you need to the nearest 5,000 Btu’s since they tend to come in increments of 5,000 or 10,000 Btu’s. Remember, we are multiplying the Btu’s the furnace makes by the efficiency it offers, to find the number of usable Btu’s you need for your 2000 square foot home. Zone 1: (70,000 Btu’s needed) 80% Efficient furnace: 90,000 Btu capacity; 90% Efficient: 80,000 Btu capacity; 95% Efficient: 75,000 Btu capacity. Zone 2: (80,000 Btu’s needed) 80% Efficient furnace: 100,000 Btu capacity; 90% Efficient: 90,000 Btu capacity; 95% Efficient: 85,000 Btu capacity. Zone 3: (90,000 Btu’s needed) 80% Efficient furnace: 115,000 Btu capacity; 90% Efficient: 100,000 Btu capacity; 95% Efficient, 95,000 Btu capacity. Zone 4: (100,000 Btu’s needed) 80% Efficient furnace: 125,000 Btu capacity; 90% Efficient: 110,000 Btu capacity; 95% Efficient: 105,000 Btu capacity. Zone 5: (120,000 Btu’s needed) 80% Efficient furnace: 150,000 Btu capacity; 90% Efficient: 135,000 Btu capacity; 95% Efficient: 125,000 Btu capacity. The numbers above will give you a very close estimate of the size furnace you will need for a 2000 square foot house where you live. The only way to get a more precise figure is to have a professional HVAC technician do a Manual J load calculation, which is a detailed analysis of your home. These figures are a very close estimate, and should prove useful in your search for the right furnace.
Call Blizzard heating and air. 952-934-0356. Not sure how much work they do in Mpls but give a call and find out.
