On Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:55:09 GMT, PaPaPeng wrote:


No high pressure sales from any of the three service guys to buy
unasked for equipment.


My game plan was if the estimate from a repair guy exceeded $500 I
would toss out the existing furnace and install one of those high
efficiency ones myself. Mine looks new (well maintained) but its
already 28 years old thereabouts. When the heat exchanger tubes give
out, as they must some day not too far into the future, they will no
longer be replaceable . By law the stores are not allowed to to stock
them as replacement parts or sell any. Same with that $183 regulator.
If faulty, replace only, no repairs.

Now if you HVAC guys can say this nicely, that your hands are tied by
law (be prepared to show printed copy to customer) and give a best
effort to do the simple fixes first, then perhaps you will get a much
less hostile reaction from your customers. Explain what you did in
repairs and why they didn't work. Gas fitting is not brain surgery
that only HVAC guys can understand. Explain the problem solving
procedures so that the customer knows they were something he could or
could not have done. We all want to save a few bucks and this
knowledge will satisfy the homeowner that its better to call you for
fixes he'd realise as beyond his abilities.

Then give them the "bad news" a $3000 replacement or some equally
shocking figure. Give them the name of your supplier so that they can
check on prices. And also the opportunity to select a particular
model. The customer expects to pay you something extra and reasonable
as a markup for you to order and deliver the hardware for them. And
to get rid of the old one. You charge service fees accordingly. The
dollar amount won't be pleasant. But an honest breakdown of the costs
that the customer can check on avoids a lot of unwarranted suspicions
and bad impressions.

I went to a major appliance parts supplier store and they had a number
of furnaces on display including the high efficiency ones. The panels
had been removed so it was easy for me to make a close inspection of
its assembly modules and installation requirements. To install a high
efficiency furnace is a lot easier than to service one. Specified PVC
ducting for the air intake and burner exhaust. The gas connection and
the electrical connection. That's it.

The new furnaces are shorter than the old gas furnaces. A transition
plenum will be needed to connect the shorter) new furnace to the
existing hot air plenum. My intended adaptation will be to instead
make a steel stand to raise the furnace to the existing plenum. That
way the bottom of the furnace will be off the floor and free from any
dampness or standing water. My existing furnace is resting on spare
aluminium bath door tracks and its free from rust and grime.

I chatted with the store personnel and they didn't bat an eye on my
intent to do the installation myself. In fact they gave a lot of
pointers on things I should do, such as resizing the hot water heater
exhaust vent (to a 4 inch liner) as my existing stack will be too
large. I found the same information in the installation manual. But
I still appreciated the information as it gives me the right
information to make my installation plans in the meantime.

The basic high efficiency furnace model is $1300. I can budget for
that.