On 6-Jan-2004, kevins_news wrote:

My house (and furnace) is now 1.5 years old. Brand new construction
1.5 years ago.
[...]
Would it be worthwhile to replace mine with high efficiency even
though it (and the building) is so new.

It is unlikely that you'd save enough to justify the $3K on the new one.
Even $100 per year takes 30 years to recover the cost. There is only a
small difference in the energy efficiency between the mid- and high-
efficiency units. We are moving and the new place has a high efficiency
FAG unit. The home inspector told us that the high efficiency furnaces
tend to have higher maintenance costs and that pretty much wipes out the
saving compared to mid-efficiency. I haven't verified his claim on
maintenance costs, but he is a good inspector and we've dealt with him
before and found him to be reliable.

If you want to save money, you'd probably be able to do more with $3k
in other areas

- Install a computerized thermostat if you don't already have one.
Set the temp back during the day (if no one's home) and overnight.
Buy everyone a nice comforter :-). If you double the thickness
of the drywall in every room, you'll decrease the temp fluctuations
by adding to the thermal mass.

- Change lights from incandecent to compact fluorecent

- Make sure you close curtains at night and on the north side during
the day. Make sure they're open on the south side to get sun.

- Make sure your vapour barrier is complete. Many new homes in the
Toronto area (for example) have a vapour barrier installed prior to
the electrical, hvac and plumbing. The result is that the vapour
barrier is ripped up and compromised by these thradesman. Patch and
plug any leaks they've made.

- Plug any other air leaks. If you don't have a heat-recover ventilator,
look into adding one.

- Electric water heat? - insulate the tank.

- Check the attic insulation - the odds are you can top it up.

- If you have half-wall insulation in the basement, add insulation right
to the floor.

There are a gazzillion other thnigs you can do.

Mike