Gas furnace conversion questions
Hi everyone, I am going to bring gas to my house and replace my oil furnace with a Trane XV95 gas furnace. I’ve had a couple
contractors give me bids on the job. I had a question about the venting options. One said they would use a venting kit and one said they would use just the PVC, one elbow pointing down and one longer section pointing up. I’m referring to the outside of the house here.
The vent kit looks a lot better and I was wondering what the advantage/disadvantage is of either way, beside the obvious
appearance of the two. Any other things I should be concerned about?
Also the fee for putting in the gas meter from my gas utility would drop by about $700 if I hook up another appliance. Even though my electric water heater is only 5 yrs old, I’m thinking if I have to spend the $700, it might as well be on a gas water heater than on the connection fee. Agree?
Thanks for any advice,
Jay
Replies
Buy a stove
Cooking with gas beats electric.
Hot water is hot water, no difference there.
Joe H
"Hot water is hot water, no
"Hot water is hot water, no difference there."
Except the cost of gas vs. electric. Often a BIG difference there ... depending on the utility company/location.
That wasn't my point.
There's a big difference between cooking with gas vs electric.
Hot water is hot water. Changing out a perfectly good water heater makes less sense than changing over to a gas cook top.
At least he gains something for his money.
Sooner or later he's going to have to replace the water heater.
As to the price of gas vs electricity in his locale, we don't know.
Joe H
You're absolutely right ... no sense in replacing something that may be perfectly good. I may say the same about the cooking appliance ... even in spite of the notion that many would prefer a gas cooktop.
It was hard to get your point w/ your short comment. Couldn't read between the line. :)
I don't think there's any functional difference between the fancy vent kits and the elbows -- both work equally well. But check the furnace install instructions for details.
A gas water heater will probably save you on the order of $10/month vs electric. However, a gas water heater generally doesn't last as long as an electric (maybe 1/2 to 2/3rds as long), it releases more heat into the room (more AC in summer), and you have to vent it (and it generally requires a true flue, vs the plastic pipe of the furnace). So you can weigh the pros and cons.
My advice....
Sort of had the same situation.
Built major addition onto rear of house. Wanted to have independent heat and A/C for the addition, so I could "turn it off" if not in use.
I chose a gas furnace for the addition. Since there was no natural gas in the neighborhood at the time, the gas was propane.
The only logical place to put a propane tank was at the opposite end of the house. I had the plumbers size the piping appropriately (oversized if anything) to handle future needs / wants.
They installed tees / valves / capped nipples for 1) gas logs, 2) water heater, 3) main house furnace, 4) stove, 5) dryer, and finally, all the way at the end of the pipe run, the addition furnace.
A few years after the initial piping and propane installation was done, the local gas utility ran natural gas into the neighborhood and we promptly had the addition furnace converted back to natural gas from propane. Since that time we have added a gas hot water heater, stove and dryer. Appliances were replaced by via attrition, in every case our total energy bill has gone down.
The only appliance which we replaced "ahead of time" was the kitchen stove, we were remodeling and installed a gas stove in the new kitchen. We have always liked gas better than electric for cooking and still do.
I would go with a gas stove / cooktop as my "second" appliance, although you might see a larger cost savings with the hot water heater.
Jim
$700 savings right up front is big. If you install the new gas WH and flue yourself, you could do it for $700, or less.
If you have the furnace guys do it, or if you install a power vent WH so as to be able to side-wall vent it, you'll spend more than $700--maybe a lot more, like up to $2500 or more.
In any case, it would be a good idea to size the gas line adequately for future appliances, and have capped tee's left at the appropriate places.
If your existing electric WH can't keep up with the demand, that's another reason to go with gas. Also, a gravity-vent WH can still heat water during a power outage--if you still have water, that is. And most municipal systems have backup emergency generators to keep the water flowing during an outage.
Depending on your utility costs, a gas WH will likely save you about $100-$200 per year.