crazyaboutorchids
11-02-2006, 08:53 AM
I posted on here in September I believe it was, asking for advice after our heat exchanger failed. We had received quotes from 5 of the 6 companies we contacted and they were all over the place for both price and size of furnace. We have a 2500 sq ft colonial in CT and had a 113,000 btu output cheapo contractors special in the basement. Our estimates went anywhere from a 90K btu furnace to a 125K btu furnace, all ThermoPride models. All companies, except the one I went with, balked when I questioned how they came up with their btu requirements. I got the old we do this all the time, we know how to size them line. The company I was really interested in dealing with immediately suggested a manual J calc on the house when I questioned the unit size they were recommending and had someone out here the following day. I had purchased the homeowners software and had run more calculations that I can tell you, but kept coming up with different figures.
They came, they measured, I had answers on paper the day after they were here. I signed a contract and dropped off my deposit. At the end of September, a ThermoPride OH6 was installed in our basement, along with an AprilAire 2200 filter and an AprilAire 400 humidifier. We went with the Beckett burner over the Riello as not many furnace folks here will work on them. We did opt for a variable speed blower. A third zone was also added to our home since the house was zoned for three but someone along the way had tied two zone motors together to be run by a thermostat in our family room - the coldest room on the main level of the house.
The furnace has the capacity to run up to 90K btus but when they tested the system after installation, they only needed a medium sized nozzle so it is running at 73K btu output. Our home is so comfortable with the new furnace it is amazing!
I want to stress the importance of manual J's even though I am NOT an expert, just a happy housewife here. The two other companies that we got estimates for, those that 'knew their stuff' so well they didn't need to run a manual J, wanted to install ThermoPrides with 105K btu output and 125K btu output. Those furnaces would have been grossly oversized and would have cost me an arm and a leg in excess oil consumption. It's apparent our old furnace was oversized as well, so to even replace at the same size would not have been the correct furnace for our home.
They came, they measured, I had answers on paper the day after they were here. I signed a contract and dropped off my deposit. At the end of September, a ThermoPride OH6 was installed in our basement, along with an AprilAire 2200 filter and an AprilAire 400 humidifier. We went with the Beckett burner over the Riello as not many furnace folks here will work on them. We did opt for a variable speed blower. A third zone was also added to our home since the house was zoned for three but someone along the way had tied two zone motors together to be run by a thermostat in our family room - the coldest room on the main level of the house.
The furnace has the capacity to run up to 90K btus but when they tested the system after installation, they only needed a medium sized nozzle so it is running at 73K btu output. Our home is so comfortable with the new furnace it is amazing!
I want to stress the importance of manual J's even though I am NOT an expert, just a happy housewife here. The two other companies that we got estimates for, those that 'knew their stuff' so well they didn't need to run a manual J, wanted to install ThermoPrides with 105K btu output and 125K btu output. Those furnaces would have been grossly oversized and would have cost me an arm and a leg in excess oil consumption. It's apparent our old furnace was oversized as well, so to even replace at the same size would not have been the correct furnace for our home.