Followups set to alt.home.repair. Again. Attributions re-added and
non-standard quoting fixed. At least it's better than Google Groups.
In alt.home.repair
wrote:
wrote:
Gas, oil, electric? Also, where in the world is it?
New York City. 1964 York/BorgWarner. Gas.
In my opinion, 49 years is plenty long enough for a gas furnace to last.
In Missouri and Oklahoma, I know of gas furnaces from the mid to late
1960s, for single-family homes of 1400 square feet or so, that were
replaced at about 30 years, 27 years, and 40 years. The 40-year-old one
had a damaged heat exchanger and was leaking combustion gases into the
house. The 30-year-old one was OK, as far as I know, but the home owner
was concerned about it failing in the future, and also wanted a more
efficient model. The 27-year-old one was replaced by the previous owner
of the house, so I don't know why they did it.
My nabe was built from land cleared for parking from the 1963 World's
Fair.
You may have already seen it, but this guy scanned the official guide
to the World's Fair:
http://www.butkus.org/information/wo..._fair_1964.htm
Am I right in thinking that new oil furnaces are more likely to
produce big gains in efficiency than a gas one?
I am pretty sure a new gas furnace will be more efficient than a 1964
model. I don't know much about oil furnaces; they aren't used much
around here (Missouri/Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas) and I don't do HVAC for a
living. I assume a 2013 oil furnace would be at least a little more
efficient than a 1964 oil furnace, but I don't know how that compares to
gas furnaces.
If you switch to oil, you do have the one-time cost of an oil tank and
some plumbing. If you stick with gas, there's a 95+% chance that the
existing gas plumbing can be reused.
As you are probably aware
, you have to mix fuel with air to burn it.
Gas is, uh, not a solid or a liquid, and the gas company puts some
pressure behind it for you, so basically you just let it escape through
a known-sized hole and it mixes with air by itself. Oil has to get
persuaded to mix with air by pumps and nozzles, which you get to buy and
maintain as part of the furnace.
Personally, I also like the idea that the gas is always there; just open
up the valve and get warm. I don't have to remember to get the tank
filled, or hope the oil truck can make it through the snow, etc.
On the other hand, if you work for an oil company, maybe you get a
company discount.
I also know that since we have plenty rooms, it may take a while to do
the caclulations.
You can get a spreadsheet to help for free, but you also apparently need
a copy of the not-free book to go with it. Or maybe go to the library.
https://www.acca.org/industry/system-design/speedsheets
Also I found an HVAC shop (on THomas Register) in Kalamazoo which is
named Brundage. Is it possible York had them make them?
Maybe, but it may just be an unrelated HVAC service/install shop run by
someone with the same name.
I Googled "brundage fans" and found
http://www.airmasterfan.com/History.htm , which seems more likely.
I can't believe there are no markings with CFM on the fan.
Why not? The engineers at York obviously had a target CFM in mind when
they chose the blower, but they also expected that people would either
buy replacements from York (using the York part number) or from their
local HVAC shop (using generic parts), so there wasn't a need to print
the CFM on the blower itself.
I looked at the installation and service manual for my 2009 Trane forced
air gas furnace, and it doesn't have just a single number for the blower
CFM; it depends on the static pressure of the ducting. (It also has a
variable-speed blower, so it depends on which speed it selects.)
But my uncle lives in the other apartment, and he's an 80yo Electrical
Engineer who spent ten years as a submarine officer.
If his apartment has its own furnace, and it's the same as yours, and
something craps out in the middle of January, make one good one out of
the parts of both of them and sleep in one apartment for a few days.
The HVAC salesman's eyes light up when somebody walks in with icicles
in their hair.
Matt Roberds