heater guy says replace furnace/AC

Posted by Bill on November 4, 2009, 10:24 am

> IMO, You'd have to be nuts to put anyhwere near 50% of the
> replacement cost into a 25 year old gas furnace.

It gets a bit complicated with heating and A/C due to more efficient new
models, rebates, etc....

Anyway with things other than that, I've seen some businesses have a policy
of ALWAYS repairing things if the repair cost is less than buying a new one.
One dollar less to repair, they will choose repair!

This makes a lot of financial sense. Take an apartment complex for example.
There may be 100 units. That is 100 refrigerators. Say 10 of these break
each year. And repair costs average 25% of the cost of a new refrigerator.
This policy could save thousands of dollars a year on refrigerator
maintenance ALONE!

Anyway that is the way some businesses decide the repair / replace
question...

Posted by Ed Pawlowski on November 4, 2009, 6:28 pm

>> IMO, You'd have to be nuts to put anyhwere near 50% of the
>> replacement cost into a 25 year old gas furnace.

> It gets a bit complicated with heating and A/C due to more efficient new
> models, rebates, etc....

Less complicated than you think. I'm saving 40% on my fuel cost with a new
boiler. Easy decision. It is paying for itself.

Posted by on November 4, 2009, 10:59 pm

wrote:

>>> IMO, You'd have to be nuts to put anyhwere near 50% of the
>>> replacement cost into a 25 year old gas furnace.

>> It gets a bit complicated with heating and A/C due to more efficient new
>> models, rebates, etc....

>Less complicated than you think. I'm saving 40% on my fuel cost with a new
>boiler. Easy decision. It is paying for itself.

Replaced our 35 year old gas furnace with a high efficiency non
condensing furnace (High medium efficiency?) 2 stage burner, 2 speed
DC eductor fan and variable speed DC blower - didn't save a cent on
gas. The couple percent improvement in gas efficiency was countered by
the VAST improvement in blower efficiency - so the heat that was no
longer supplied by the inefficient blower motor had to be made up by
the gas.

It IS saving us significantly on electricity, however.

A 10% improvement in gas efficency would mean less than $50 per year,
and a "high efficency" furnace would not be 10% better than what we
got. Figured the extra expense, and generally shorter life of a
condensing furnace, would take too long to pay-back to make it worth
while.

Didn't replace the (still working well) 35 year old AC. A 14 SEER
would be nice - the old one is likely closer to 5 - but since we
generally only use it about 5 days a year, the payback on that one
would go to our grandchildren!!!

Posted by on November 5, 2009, 9:33 am

> > IMO, You'd have to be nuts to put anyhwere near 50% of the
> > replacement cost into a 25 year old gas furnace.

> It gets a bit complicated with heating and A/C due to more efficient new
> models, rebates, etc....
> Anyway with things other than that, I've seen some businesses have a poli=

> of ALWAYS repairing things if the repair cost is less than buying a new o=

ne.

> One dollar less to repair, they will choose repair!

Which just shows how foolish some business people can be and how much
more money they'd be making if they had some sense.

> This makes a lot of financial sense. Take an apartment complex for exampl=

> There may be 100 units. That is 100 refrigerators. Say 10 of these break
> each year. And repair costs average 25% of the cost of a new refrigerator=

> This policy could save thousands of dollars a year on refrigerator
> maintenance ALONE!

I don't think so. You can buy a brand new refrigerator typical of
what you might find in many apartments for $400. Using your example,
I think it's highly unlikely that you're going to find the average
repair cost for a service call on a 25 year old refrigerators is going
to be 25%, which is only $100. That's where all the math breaks
down. And that's even before you factor in pissed off tenants with
spoiled food, the overhead of the calls they make to management in the
middle of the night, how your apartment looks with a 25 year old unit
compared to others that may have newer appliances and command higher
rent, etc.

In the case of the OP's 25 year old gas furnace, I think most of us
here would agree it could make sense to put a few hundred dollars in
repairs to it under certain circumstances. However, I think very
few would say that it makes sense to put repairs costing anywhere near
half the cost of a new system into it.

> Anyway that is the way some businesses decide the repair / replace
> question...

Posted by on November 5, 2009, 3:50 pm

On Thu, 5 Nov 2009 06:33:09 -0800 (PST), trader4@optonline.net wrote:

>> > IMO, You'd have to be nuts to put anyhwere near 50% of the
>> > replacement cost into a 25 year old gas furnace.

>> It gets a bit complicated with heating and A/C due to more efficient new
>> models, rebates, etc....
>> Anyway with things other than that, I've seen some businesses have a policy
>> of ALWAYS repairing things if the repair cost is less than buying a new one.
>> One dollar less to repair, they will choose repair!

>Which just shows how foolish some business people can be and how much
>more money they'd be making if they had some sense.

With the prices of so many "things" dropping,(and the markup, or
"profit" on the sale shrinking even faster,)it is QUITE possible that
fixing things will make more money than replacing in the not so very
distant future - particularly when disposal of the "spent" product is
factored in. We live in a VERY wasteful society.

To me, if the choice is fixing something that has worked well for10 or
more years at a cost of X dollars, and replacing it with something of
unknown (but suspect) quality for 2X dollars, I sure know where MY
money is going.

>> This makes a lot of financial sense. Take an apartment complex for example.
>> There may be 100 units. That is 100 refrigerators. Say 10 of these break
>> each year. And repair costs average 25% of the cost of a new refrigerator.
>> This policy could save thousands of dollars a year on refrigerator
>> maintenance ALONE!

>I don't think so. You can buy a brand new refrigerator typical of
>what you might find in many apartments for $400. Using your example,
>I think it's highly unlikely that you're going to find the average
>repair cost for a service call on a 25 year old refrigerators is going
>to be 25%, which is only $100. That's where all the math breaks
>down. And that's even before you factor in pissed off tenants with
>spoiled food, the overhead of the calls they make to management in the
>middle of the night, how your apartment looks with a 25 year old unit
>compared to others that may have newer appliances and command higher
>rent, etc.
>In the case of the OP's 25 year old gas furnace, I think most of us
>here would agree it could make sense to put a few hundred dollars in
>repairs to it under certain circumstances. However, I think very
>few would say that it makes sense to put repairs costing anywhere near
>half the cost of a new system into it.

>> Anyway that is the way some businesses decide the repair / replace
>> question...

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heater guy says replace furnace/AC - Page 8