Replacing my 20+ year old furnace with ??

[jeffkrol]

ok, well to answer some questions. The house has double pane windows and all exterior walls are insulated R11.

I was also told by both dealers that both primary and secondary heat exchangers were stainless steel.

As far as the RUUD, all 3 dealers I talked to said this manufacturer deals with entry units only. I had originally considered a Comfort-Aire (which is a retagged RUUD) but cannot find a local dealer.

Unless it is different in Canada the York has an aluminized steel primary, ss secondary.. Ruud is SS for both (primary for sure).......
Was going to pick the Ruud for that reason but went w/ the york (no regrets so far).

97% AFUE Modulating PSC NG33 Gas Furnace (YM9M) These compact units employ induced combustion, reliable hot surface ignition and high heat transfer aluminized tubular heat exchangers.

The Lennox lists ArmorTuff steel heat exchanger........
http://www.lennox.com/pdfs/brochures...as_Furnace.pdf

[Crazy4thenucks]

ok, well to answer some questions. The house has double pane windows and all exterior walls are insulated R11.

I was also told by both dealers that both primary and secondary heat exchangers were stainless steel.

As far as the RUUD, all 3 dealers I talked to said this manufacturer deals with entry units only. I had originally considered a Comfort-Aire (which is a retagged RUUD) but cannot find a local dealer.

RUUD does not deal with ust entry level units only....Your "dealers" are just promoting there brand(s) More to the point they just dont know...I supply and deal with that manufacturer and will put them up against any unit.

Feel free to email me (email is in profile) I will be happy to discuss this more with you.

On a side note...I would recommend against an air handler and heat strips...and would go with the gas furnace for sure...gas is resonably cheap here.

[amd]

On a side note...I would recommend against an air handler and heat strips...and would go with the gas furnace for sure...gas is resonably cheap here.

Heat strips when used with a heatpump in vancouver will rarely come on. (on for defrost cycles and a tiny bit below the balance point)

BC gets most of it's electricity from hydro dams; gas might be cheaper than electricity now, but it's volatile.

If the OP was in a much colder area of BC where heatpumps aren't worth installing, a furnace would be the best option.

[Crazy4thenucks]

Heat strips when used with a heatpump in vancouver will rarely come on. (on for defrost cycles and a tiny bit below the balance point)

BC gets most of it's electricity from hydro dams; gas might be cheaper than electricity now, but it's volatile.

If the OP was in a much colder area of BC where heatpumps aren't worth installing, a furnace would be the best option.

No, sorry your mistaken.....If you lived here you would know that BC Hydro has a two tiered rate system that dings you once you go over a certain KW/H usage....just one week of using those heat strips would hit you real hard in the pocket book. If your H/P fails (for some reason) and your stuck with AUX heat strips, for lets say two weeks or even a month, your going to be one unhappy customer come hydro bill time.

If you have gas already in the house (which 98% of us do) then stick with a gas furnace, you will be a lot happier, IMO...but what do I know, I'm not from the center of the universe.....AKA, Ontario

[amd]

I know that vancouver has tiered electric rates.

Even the higher rate is is quite low compared to most of Canada - around 8 cents per kwh. *

Gas including all charges is around $9.12 per delivered Gj over there (rediculously low right now)

277 kwh per Gj / 0.95% efficiency = 263 kwh per Gj of purchased energy

Gas = 3.4 cents per delivered kwh after efficiency of furnace (95%) is taken into consideration

8 cents per kwh with an average COP of 3* = 2.66 cents per delivered kwh of heat.
Or more realistically, 8 HSPF = 3.04 cents per delivered kwh of heat, seasonal efficiency.


The price of gas is very volatile (http://www.energyshop.com/es/homes/g...forecast.cfm?r compared to renewable hydro electricity - it's very cheap now, but probably won't remain so over the 15-20 year life of an HVAC system.

and your stuck with AUX heat strips, for lets say two weeks or even a month, your going to be one unhappy customer come hydro bill time.

...A customer would be unhappy if he/she had to pay hundreds of dollars for a inducer or ignitor replacement on a furnace which rarely gets used. Service costs must be taken into consideration.