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Choosing A New Furnace
Choosing A New Furnace For Your
New York Home
 As
winter approaches, everyone begins
to think about the furnace. Will in
kick on? Will it last through
another long, cold winter? Should we
install a new furnace? If so, with
what kind? If these questions are
familiar to you, keep reading as we
try to "demystify" a couple of
household heating sources.
The most important step to take
before starting the furnace for the
season is to have it inspected by a
licensed Rockland County heating
professional. They will clean
the furnace, make sure it is in good
working order, they will also
recommend any parts that will need
to be serviced or replaced in the
near future.
If the furnace inspector tells you
that it is time to replace the
furnace, you may be overwhelmed by
the choices in today’s’ furnace
market. There are the standard gas,
oil and electric furnaces as well as
the newer outdoor wood furnaces and
corn-fueled furnaces to name a few.
There is lots of information
available on these newer furnaces on
the internet, however, a quick
overview will be provided here.
One of the most popular options
today is an outdoor heating source.
It uses the old standby of wood, but
eliminates the mess and smell
associated with burning wood. An
outdoor wood heating unit is placed
approximately 500ft from the house.
The wood burner itself is built
inside of a small building, this
often is made to look like a smaller
house or shed. The heat is carried
from the burner via heated water,
which runs through underground,
insulated pipes. This is the most
effective and efficient method for
moving heat over distances. Once the
heated water reaches its
destination, there are a couple of
options for actually heating the
home. Using a boiler, radiant floor
heating system, a heat exchanger or
a forced air furnace that is powered
by a direct circulation system. The
wood burning system can also do
double duty to heat household water
if a water-to-water heat exchanger
is installed.
Although there are many advantages
to using an outside wood burning
furnace, it has a down side to its
use as well. The cost can be quite
high for most people, running
approximately $5,000 installed. This
of course, depends upon what part of
the country you live in.
Another alternative to the
traditional
furnace that is gaining
in popularity is the corn burning
furnace. This type of furnace uses
shelled corn (the same kind fed to
livestock) to heat a home. While
this is a viable source of heat it
is not fool proof, it does have
drawbacks that need to be considered
before making a final decision.
Corn fuel furnaces are comparable to
a convention furnace as far as price
is concerned, costing roughly
$2,000. It uses corn that has no
more than 15% moisture content;
fortunately, this is the same
percentage of moisture as feed corn,
making it very easy to obtain from a
local elevator. The cost of burning
corn as compared to propane is
approximately one bushel of corn is
to 5.5 gallons of propane fuel. Corn
is also a natural and renewable
resource, and keeps farmers in
business while keeping your heating
costs down.
On the other side, corn fed furnaces
need daily cleaning to be efficient.
They also run on an electric fan
system, if you lose electricity, you
lose heat also. For this reason, its
best to either have a generator or a
back up furnace for emergencies.
Being armed with the knowledge of
these types of heating sources will
make you a more educated consumer
when it is time to replace an old,
worn out furnace.
If you are looking for a professional furnace repair contractor
in New York please call us today at
(914) 631- 6744 or click on the link
below:
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