Home Owner Gurus and Furnace Experts

[Darkstar757]

I am looking at a home that currently has a Electric furnace for the 3000 square foot home.

How much do you think it will cost to move to a Gas furnace? Is this something that is very difficult to do?





Thanks,
Darkstar

 

[AlienCraft]

Natural Gas or Propane?
Need to check local regs for tank location if Propane is your option.
Does the house have natural gas for the kitchen? That's essential and usually supplied by a municipal entity, although some towns farm it out to some Monopoly Company.

A real HVAC contractor can handle the whole thing, and it will need to be permitted and inspected.
Do not skimp on this, leaky gas can be a blast.

 

[amdskip]

You need to find out where the closest gas line is. Chances are the gas company will charge so much per foot to run it to your house which I imagine isn't cheap.

 

[Darkstar757]

The home has a natural gas water heater right next to the electric furnace. So im going to assume the gas line is already to the house.

 

[DrPizza]

okay, since you have a gas line, next questions are,
what kind of heating do you want? Radiant? Hot water baseboard? Forced air?
How many stories is your house?
If one story, do you use the basement? Is there room to run air ducts?

Best thing you can do is probably have an HVAC or two give you an estimate. You can get a forced air furnace installed for $2500ish, if they can use the chimney that your hot water tank uses.

 

[Billb2]

If you'll be staying in the house for a while, now would be a good time to look at one of the super efficient furnaces. Even if you move sooner than you plan, it's a good selling point.

If you're talking to HVAC contractors be absolutely sure you're comparing apples to apples.

 

[Sluggo]

A few points.

Ideally, a 3000 sq. ft. home would be zoned with 2 smaller systems for efficiency.

Is the existing gas line large enough in diameter for the demand of a gas fired furnace, as well as the demand of the HWT.

Is the outside unit, the A/C compressor in good shape, or are you considering a complete HVAC system? I guess that 3000 sq. ft run on one system would need a 5 ton unit, which costs a bundle to run, hence the split system mentioned above.

 

[dullard]

1) Is gas heating in your area cheaper than electric heating? If you have a heat pump and a heat pump viable location (ie not too far below zero in the winters), the answer may very well be no.

2) Do you have proper ventillation or at least an easy path to install it?

If you can't answer yes to both, it probably isn't worth doing this installation.

 

[Darkstar757]

OK I will have a HVAC contractor come out and look at the home. Is an electric furnace very bad in the md dc area? I dont want to buy the home if this is going to be a huge problem.

 

[mshan]

Rule of thumb I read was $1500 - $2000 per ton of heating / cooling capacity.

You need to get a qualified contractor that you trust to come out and estimate accurately your needs based upon your house so that hvac runs in optimal range.

 

[PingSpike]

Where I'm at, electric is now cheaper then propane for heating. And its barely more expensive then oil.

Natual gas was still a decent deal though.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: Darkstar757
OK I will have a HVAC contractor come out and look at the home. Is an electric furnace very bad in the md dc area? I dont want to buy the home if this is going to be a huge problem.

I'm guessing your electric unit has both your heat and your AC? If so, you'd have to disable the heat side and find another location to run your gas furnace. They can run in enclosed spaces. (mine is in my basement), but you'll need a good exhaust pipe. My exhaust pipe is almost horizontal....there shouldn't be a problem to go out the side of your house like a dryer vent would.

Figure out how many BTUs your current heater is and where your AC system hooks in. Do a few searches online and see if you can locate a cheap gas furnace that matches your BTU requirements. Here's one: http://www.drillspot.com/produ...120D20UP11_Gas_Furnace

As stated earlier...if you redesign your home for efficiency, you'll want 2 zones and that's going to cost you....but most folks don't worry about heat as much as cooling. Space heaters and a sweater can take care of a cool room in the house. If you're dealing with cooling, hot spots are much more difficult to remedy. I don't think the 2 zone solution would apply. If you do have a combo unit, it shouldn't take much to disable the heater. Otherwise, you might even be able to sell your old electric unit or keep it in the system as a backup....just remember to test fire it every now and then to burn the dust off the elements.

 

[Greenman]

Originally posted by: Sluggo
A few points.

Ideally, a 3000 sq. ft. home would be zoned with 2 smaller systems for efficiency.

Is the existing gas line large enough in diameter for the demand of a gas fired furnace, as well as the demand of the HWT.

Is the outside unit, the A/C compressor in good shape, or are you considering a complete HVAC system? I guess that 3000 sq. ft run on one system would need a 5 ton unit, which costs a bundle to run, hence the split system mentioned above.

Why wouldn't you use one system and zone it?

 

[Scarpozzi]

Originally posted by: Greenman

Originally posted by: Sluggo
A few points.

Ideally, a 3000 sq. ft. home would be zoned with 2 smaller systems for efficiency.

Is the existing gas line large enough in diameter for the demand of a gas fired furnace, as well as the demand of the HWT.

Is the outside unit, the A/C compressor in good shape, or are you considering a complete HVAC system? I guess that 3000 sq. ft run on one system would need a 5 ton unit, which costs a bundle to run, hence the split system mentioned above.

Why wouldn't you use one system and zone it?

Because you lose efficiency. The point of zoning is that you can turn one side of the house off if you don't use it. The only other way you can zone a house is to be able to cut certain rooms off, but you still have to run a full-size unit even if you're heating/cooling half of your house so the heated or cooled air is going to bleed off and be wasted.

 

[TankGuys]

Originally posted by: Darkstar757
I am looking at a home that currently has a Electric furnace for the 3000 square foot home.

How much do you think it will cost to move to a Gas furnace? Is this something that is very difficult to do?





Thanks,
Darkstar

If you are paying to install a new heating/cooling system anyway, give SERIOUS consideration to geothermal. Much bigger initial cost, but the long terms savings are huge, and the environmental benefit is awesome as well. We installed geo at our house, cut our bills by almost 60%, and we didn't even have AC before.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Darkstar757
I am looking at a home that currently has a Electric furnace for the 3000 square foot home.

How much do you think it will cost to move to a Gas furnace? Is this something that is very difficult to do?





Thanks,
Darkstar

First you need to determine if there is a gas main running through your neighborhood. If there is and I'm assuming your asking because it exist you must have the gas company run a line out to your house. This will probably be the most expensive part of the operation. If you already have gas in your house then even better.

You need to call in a contractor (HVAC) to do what's known as a "Manaul J Load calculation". He should do this for both heating and cooling. He needs to come into the house measure the sq footage and determine the wall insulation type etc..... The of course should be for a gas furnace. Afterwards the HVAC contractor needs to install the unit.

I don't even know how much it would run to run a gas line if you don't have gas in your home. However just for a gas furnace it could run anywhere from 1,500 - 2,500 labor/furnace/materials.

If you have gas in your home and he dosen't need to jump over hoops to run the gas line in your basement it would probably not be too much expensive then if you replaced with an electric unit.

You also need to factor in furnace brand. GOODMAN is pretty cheap whereas TRANE, BRYANT, CARRIER, YORK are a little more

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Darkstar757
OK I will have a HVAC contractor come out and look at the home. Is an electric furnace very bad in the md dc area? I dont want to buy the home if this is going to be a huge problem.

You live in the MD/DC area. I live in MD as well. Gas prices are going up but really a gas furnace has the convienece that an electric dosen't have. It puts out a very high heat. Gas is generally still cheaper to run though. However, gas furnaces are measured in AFUE (Average Fuel Use Eff). Many people don't realize a gas furnace must do away with the CO gas that is a by-product of the combustion of Nat GAS. The CO must be vented out from the house. Along this some of the heat is loss. So the most expensive gas furnaces are 95% or so AFUE. Many people are now replaceing their 80 or 60% AFUE gas furnaces.

Electric has no by-product. It's pretty close to 100% eff as notthing is loss except in your ductwork.

 

[steppinthrax]

Have you looked at getting a heat pump.

 

[Darkstar757]

SO should I keep the electric one of not. Im just so confused right now.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Darkstar757
SO should I keep the electric one of not. Im just so confused right now.

The first thing you should do before anything is something known as a "Manual J calculation" This will bring a contractor in your home. He will look at your house and determine what is best. When he is finished he will come up with a formula that represents your house and then plug in "what if" situations to see which one saves money. For example everybody is going crazy over the 95% AFUE gas furnaces right now. My furnaces was from 75 and needed replacement. the contracter told me based on the size of my house and the way the ductwork is setup I would only save maybe 40 dollars a year if I went for a 95% v.s. choosing a 80% AFUE.

He will kind of show you what the disadvantages/advantages would be if going to gas/electric/heat pump/geothermal. Every house is different.