Proper maintenance of your furnace needs to include changing furnace filters on a regular basis. This allows for the adequate level of air flow through your furnace and the efficient filtering of particles going through the system so they are not reintroduced into the air circulating in your home. Depending on the type of furnace filters that you use, it is recommended to change or clean them at least once a month especially when the furnace is being used regularly. Sometimes it is recommended to change them more often if there is a lot of dust and debris where you live. This is especially important if you are doing any renovations or home improvements that create dust. Even if you have been painting, you should change your filter as soon as you are finished as there are many fine particles that get into the air duct system and will clog your furnace air filter.

By having clean air filters you will be able to keep your furnace running efficiently and your furnace will not have to over work itself to push the necessary air through the system. Clean furnace air filters will also do a better job at removing irritating particles to keep the dust levels in your home down as well as not allowing other fine particles to circulate in the air. This is particularly important for those with allergies. There are filters available with additional tight pleating to help catch the finest particles. There are also filters designed for people with allergies to dust to assist in the reduction of these irritants in the air.

Many people use reusable air filters. These filters are designed to be removed from the furnace as soon as they are dirty and then properly washed and returned to the furnace. It is a good idea to buy a second reusable filter so that you can take the dirty one out, replace it with the clean one on hand and clean the dirty one at your convenience so it is ready for the next change over. Reusable furnace filters are more expensive initially however, you will not have to purchase them on a regular basis so in the long run they actually save you money.

No matter which type of furnace filter you use, you need to make sure you check it regularly and replace or clean the filter as needed. Not only will you find the air in your home to be cleaner, but also the efficiency with which your furnace operates will be enhanced. Through proper maintenance of not only the filter, but the furnace as well, you will help prevent problems and extend the life of your furnace. A regular professional cleaning of the furnace and ductwork is also recommended once a year.

If I am going to do my own Furnace Installation, should I choose a high or mid efficiency furnace? The choice is not so clear so here are some tips to make the choice easier.

The difference in a high efficiency and mid efficiency furnace installation can be considerable if the equipment is installed correctly. For a high efficiency furnace to work correctly it will have to be installed with two pvc pipes going outside. One to carry the product of burning gas out of your home. The other pipe is to bring in fresh air for the furnace to use for combustion.

Now this perplexes some. Why bring in fresh air to burn? Is there not plenty around the house that you do not have to bring in freezing cold air, I dont see how this helps. Thats a great question all. Heres why. When the furnace is burning air naturally from your home it is creating a negative pressure in your home, and all the while the atmosphere pressure on the outside of the house is pushing in with 14.7 lbs of pressure. This causes cold air to find every small opening in your home (like electric outlets, cracks in windows, small cracks from doors) and push that freezing cold air into your home making it very inefficient.

Now if we bring in a little bit of fresh air and pipe it right into the burner chamber on the furnace we increase the efficiency buy not circumventing those natural forces. In fact in theory, and there are some furnaces out there that do this, in theory if you could pressurize your home to 14.8 lbs pressure or close to it, you could possible heat the house with a candle or two as there would be no cold air infiltration.

I know thats a long story just to say, make sure you install the intake pipe………

The efficiencies work like this – if my furnace is 80% efficient, for every dollar I send to the heating company 80 cents would have been to heat my home, the other 20% went into inefficiencies . So a 95% Furnace is a booya no.

Now on to choosing. If I were short on money and I already had a 80% efficient furnace I would more then likely go for another. They are cheaper up front and there is no real added expense to install other then the furnace itself.

When you  choose to install a 95% furnace and you have a 80% already in your home , the furnace will not only cost more you should take the following into consideration.

• The initial cost is more for a 95% furnace, but you could make that up in a few year with efficiency.
• You will have to install new pipes to the outside of your home – two to be exact, this is extra cost
• If your hot water tank is left alone piped into the chimney (called orphaned)   It will need to have a chimney liner installed so the flue gases can get out of the home and not fall back down the chimney and eat at your chimney. These can be a considerable cost depending on the access to your chimney and the style (but thats for another article)

That should cover most of the needed data to answer the question–  New Furnace Installation 95% or 80% ?

So what is a thermostat. T-stats (thermostat for short) are used in a variety of applications, In fact your cooking appliance most likely has a thermostat, so does your car. The t-stat were going to be talking about is the one on the wall in your home.

What does it do? Basically a thermostat is a switch. Just like a light switch when we want to turn something on (other then our spouse) , we just flip the switch on the wall up.

The thermostat is exactly the same principle , but it does the job without human interaction.

How does the t-stat sense temperatures?

Good question . The old style had a piece of metal in it that expanded or contracted when heated or cooled, when the metal was heated it expanded enough to flip the switch, then when it cooled sufficiently it flipped the switch the other way.

The new electronic t-stats have sensors that will change an electric property and send a single to flip the switch on or off.

Here is a basic and simple wiring diagram of a thermostat , and some explanation

So here is the deal……

R = Color red , and Power coming from the transformer on the Furnace

W = Color White , and this is the wire that send 24volts back to the furnace when the t-stat calls for heat. That 24volts starts the heating cycle

G = Green in Color (see a pattern) , this is used to manually start the fan in the furnace (most of the time)

Y = Yellow for color, and this will send 24 volts back to the furnace to start the AC cycle (if you have ac, if not you dont have ac you dont use this terminal

x (sometimes B and sometimes other colors) = usually black or blue in color, this is the common, or ground side of the transformer in the furnace.

Not all thermostats are the same , and many of them will have different parameters that the manufacturer would like you to adhere to. Those instructions are very important. READ THEM CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU DO YOU OWN THERMOSTAT INSTALL. If you have any questions you can always email me and I will try to help.

Here is another fine resource for thermostat wiring , Probably the most comprehensive i have ever seen . So if your stuck or have a more complicated system try this link

Hope this all helps with your furnace install – If you looking for a full set of written instructions look at my home page where you will find The Ultimate Furnace Installation Instructions

Regards Tony

This site is dealing with making your own power for your home to get off the electric grid

you can find the site by clicking here

We are working on this section to add the Air Conditioners.

Currently we are moving into heating season and the Furnace and Boiler Sections will be compleated Before the AC sections.

If  You would like to order an AC System at contractors price

Email — anthony@furnacebook.com

Regards  Tony

Due to the nature and weight , and price fluctuation of boilers, I have decided to keep the list here without photos which makes the price easy to change.

MADE IN USE - UTICA NY

NOTE – IF YOU WOULD LIKE A SPECIFIC MAKE OF BOILER OR A DIFFERENT EFFICIENCY – JUST CALL OR LEAVE AN EMAIL – CONTACT INFORMATION IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

IN STOCK

UTICA – MID EFFICIENCY – 75,000 BTU — PRICED AT $1420

UTICA – MID EFFICIENCY – 100,000 BTU — PRICED AT $1450

UTICA – MID EFFICIENCY – 125,000 BTU — PRICED AT $1,570

UTICA – MID EFFICIENCY – 150,000 BTU — PRICED AT $1,650

UTICA – MID EFFICIENCY – 175,000 BTU — PRICED AT $1,865

UTICA – MID EFFICIENCY – 200,000 BTU — PRICED AT $2,100

PRICES INCLUDE SHIPPING – DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU LIVE

EMAIL – anthony@furnacebook.com
Orders and questions – Derek – 716-523-7627

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Have a go at it. Tanks are simple to install

First step is to buy a new hot water tank. If yours was working fine then just order one that is the same size. If you found yourself a bit shy of water when the whole family wanted to shine up, buy one a bit larger. They rate them by Gallons In the US. So if you have an 80-gallon tank that’s not cutting the hot dog, get one that’s 100 gallons. If you plan on putting in a hot tub in the near future then do some research and find out how much capacity you will need to still have hot water after you install your new tub.

Next we need to come up with some tools. The typical will do, hammer and screwdrivers, we will also need some pipe cutters, pipe wrenches (two at least) you might want to have a few large crescent wrenches around as well. A garden hose will be handy.

Some materials are now needed. You will more then likely need some copper fittings. The usual would be two (¾ inch female adapters)(two ¾ inch couplings – sweat by sweat) the fittings of course will depend on the size of, and material that the original contractor used. A propane torch, or whatever torch is available, If you have to buy one here I would recommend buying the turbo torch model, heats much faster, and you are able to silver braze with it. That way if you ever decide to install your own air conditioner you are able to use it. They are really handy. Pipe dope is needed. Solder. Solder paste and brush. Sand paper or wire brushes. Soap bubbles to check for gas leaks.

Next turn off the gas valve for the incoming gas supply (see photo)

Following that we need to shut off the cold water feed coming into the tank (see photo)

After those tuff tasks wear you out attach the Hose to the water drain valve, run the hose to somewhere where the water can drain off. Sump pump or where ever. Open the valve and start to drain your hot water tank. Please give it some time to cool off if recently in operation.

Now open most of the hot water faucets in your home, let the tank drain for a few minutes. Put a small pan or bucket under the pressure release tube (see photo). Open the pressure release valve and let it stay open, this releases the vacuum your tank will create and let the water drain off faster.

While the water is draining off. Make sure you turned off the gas valve, disconnect the pipes from the gas shut off valve to the hot water tank; they usually have a union connection them and you just unscrew this to disconnect. If it does not have a union a new one will have to eventually be installed, put on your materials list. You should at this time you should also cut or disconnect the copper pipes from the hot water tank. Cut them half way up to give you some room to work when reconnecting.

The only thing left to disconnect now is the flue pipe. They usually just pop off and can be reused for the new hot water tank. If you decided to install a larger tank you might have to change the pipe sizes. The instructions for this would have come with the tank. If you are going to struggle with the gas line or the flue piping, I wrote a guide called The Ultimate Furnace Installation Instructions its $9.97 and explains how to accomplish these tasks in a step-by-step fashion. It’s fairly simple though you should not need to buy the guide. A word of caution, most of the problems that come from hot water tank installations, or furnace installations, come from the flue piping, or the gas piping, so be extremely careful in these areas.

Now you should be able to just remove the tank. Remove the cold water feed and the hot water feed pipes. We will be needing those. Also remove the pressure relief tube, that’s usually reusable.

Stick the new hot water tank in place and start to put together. The tank has marked on top which hole is for the cold or hot water feed.

I usually try to line the gas line first. That is usually the most difficult pipe to move. Make sure you use a union to connect. Once you are finished with that check the gas line for leaks with your soap bubbles. There is no room for sloppiness here, check and recheck. Turn the gas valve back off. Install the Pressure relief valve that comes with the tank; install the old tube that you took off the old tank.

Now attach the copper pipes. If you don’t know how to solder and you have copper piping, there is a free tutorial on soldering copper pipe at How to solder copper piping . It’s very handy. Copper pipes will not solder if there is any water present, so super dry there. That’s not an exaggeration it’s a fact if there is water in the pipes it will not solder. If the pipe keeps dripping. Turn of the water to the home. Open all the faucets in the home. It should dry it up in no time. If that does not work my grandfather Jake showed me how to stuff bread up the pipe and solder it together super fast. Works, but I don’t like to do it. Shut off the faucets when finished and turn on the water, check for leaks and repair as necessary.

Note: Sometimes when you mess with the water system in your home, you will pass a good bit of sediment through your piping. This will cause the screens in your faucets, and the showerheads to get clogged with sediment. You might have to clean these out to get them working when you’re finished.

Now fill the tank up with water. Turn the gas valve on again (check for leaks again) and light the pilot light. If you don’t know how to light a pilot light the instructions are on the side of the tank (next to the gas valve).

Reinstall the tubing for the pressure relief valve.

Adjust temperature settings on your tank and your done.

Let us know how it goes. Tell your friends you found it free on www.furnacebook.com

Well here is a link for a Calculator that’s free, and easy to use. Hope you enjoy.

Heat/Cool Load Calculator

I already know the questions running through your head. Why? Why do i need this. If you have a boiler, you do.

If you have a hot water heating system, it consists of two major components. Your boiler, and your Hydronic circulating system, both operating together, but yet still very much apart.

We want you to be prepared to either know exactly what a contractor is saying to you (you should know everything you need to know about your boiler hydronics after reading this book) The book is very well written.

A few of you will even be able to fix/repair your own system, thereby saving hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Feel free to send me a beer through pay pal , if you like!! LOL

A new training manual, “How Hydronic System Components Really Work,” is available from Bell & Gossett. The 40-page manual presents new and updated information on system components and their roles in the hydronic system including:

* Operation of air relief valves, air separators, compression tanks, expansion tanks and more
* The circulator and how it moves water in closed systems
* Taking control of water hammer and velocity noise
* Low water cut-offs for hot water boilers
* Flow control options
* The point of no pressure change

For a free copy of training manual FHD-501A, visit www.bellgossett.com. About 1/2 way down the page on the left hand side is the manuel.

Write us and let us know how you liked the book.