"Todd H." wrote in message ...
dkhedmo writes:

Been in our new house coming up on two weeks now. (Our first house, an
early '50's ranch on a slab.) So far, an unexpected plumbing repair
has cost $1200, and today's chimney inspection has revealed a problem
with a fix costing $1200. Lemme guess what the electrician is going to
say on Monday to upgrade the panel: $1200?! I need an aspirin.

Well that sucks. Sorry to hear it.

If it makes you feel any better, as I type, $3700 worth of furnace is
going into the basement of a house purchased less than a year ago.

Two months after we bought our house and money was tight, the electric panel
in our natural gas furnace (original to the house - nearly 40 years old)
went up in flames. Fortunately the blower was still going and we were
home so we were immediately alerted to the fire and pulled the power to the
system. So while the furnace & closet was toast (literally and
figuratively), nothing else was damaged.

Things I learned:
1) Burning the furnace is an inefficient method of heating one's house.

2) One of the requirements for being a HVAC installer is a deer hunting
license. The fire occurred a week before the start of deer season, our new
high efficiency furnace was delivered to the HVAC shop the day before the
season opener. Unfortunately we had to wait another week for the furnace
to be installed because all the HVAC guys were out in the woods hunting
Bambi.

3) Sometimes there are silver linings to clouds. Even though we weren't
happy to be hit with such a sudden big expense, the new furnace is much more
efficient and comfortable than the old one. We compared our gas/electric
usage to the previous owner's records and there was a dramatic decrease in
gas/electric consumption after the new furnace was installed. According to
the HVAC guy, our old furnace was oversized (IIRC 140 BTUs). It would
alternate big blasts of hot air with nothing so the heating was very uneven.
The new (well it's now almost five years old) furnace is 80 BTU, gives out
constant heat and is very quiet.

Chris