- Location
- Rainy side of Washington
Backstory:
I'm about 1/4 of the way through gutting and rebuilding my house... as some of you already know it's a real fixer upper, basically the foundation, frame, water heater, and some trim/wood floors will be original when I finish. I bought it last October and spent the winter battling our record snow season putting a new roof on it, only got it ready to move in by the end of May, and even so, most people wouldn't. I have a few extension cords for electricity, there was no roof on the bathroom when I moved in just a sheet of poly, a makeshift shower stall in the basement... basically camping in my own house. There are a lot of things I will do to not be beholden to a landlord and avoid paying 800 a month in rent, and temporarily lowering my living standards to the mid to late 1800s is one of those things.
Anyways. As I expected it needs a new furnace, the old one is an oil fired boiler and there is no way in hell I am buying a bunch of steam radiators without knowing how long the old furnace will last, especially when I want to put in radiant floor heating in the second floor anyhow. So I need to buy a gas fired forced hot water furnace. An online estimator told me I need approximately 53000 output BTUs, but I can't find a place to buy a furnace that will actually let me search by features. I just want to search for a >95% efficiency gas/forced hot water furnace by its BTU rating.
Also - got any ideas as to how accurate that estimate is? It's a 1400 square foot 1.5 floor 3 bedroom, the main roof is 2x6 @ 45 degrees, second floor ceilings are also 2x6. Rafters are 24 inches OC. Walls are all 2x4 construction and mostly 16 inches OC. I'm using R-15 fiberglass on all the 16" OC 2x4 construction and R-19 fiberglass on all the 24" 2x6 construction. I don't want to buy a furnace that's too small or one that's too large...
Oh, and if you happen to be an HVAC person in the central mass area reading this, I'm more than willing to pay for advice/consultation especially if you can tell me how to install radiant floor heating properly. I've done a bunch of internet research on it, but I really want to get this right the first time.
I'm about 1/4 of the way through gutting and rebuilding my house... as some of you already know it's a real fixer upper, basically the foundation, frame, water heater, and some trim/wood floors will be original when I finish. I bought it last October and spent the winter battling our record snow season putting a new roof on it, only got it ready to move in by the end of May, and even so, most people wouldn't. I have a few extension cords for electricity, there was no roof on the bathroom when I moved in just a sheet of poly, a makeshift shower stall in the basement... basically camping in my own house. There are a lot of things I will do to not be beholden to a landlord and avoid paying 800 a month in rent, and temporarily lowering my living standards to the mid to late 1800s is one of those things.
Anyways. As I expected it needs a new furnace, the old one is an oil fired boiler and there is no way in hell I am buying a bunch of steam radiators without knowing how long the old furnace will last, especially when I want to put in radiant floor heating in the second floor anyhow. So I need to buy a gas fired forced hot water furnace. An online estimator told me I need approximately 53000 output BTUs, but I can't find a place to buy a furnace that will actually let me search by features. I just want to search for a >95% efficiency gas/forced hot water furnace by its BTU rating.
Also - got any ideas as to how accurate that estimate is? It's a 1400 square foot 1.5 floor 3 bedroom, the main roof is 2x6 @ 45 degrees, second floor ceilings are also 2x6. Rafters are 24 inches OC. Walls are all 2x4 construction and mostly 16 inches OC. I'm using R-15 fiberglass on all the 16" OC 2x4 construction and R-19 fiberglass on all the 24" 2x6 construction. I don't want to buy a furnace that's too small or one that's too large...
Oh, and if you happen to be an HVAC person in the central mass area reading this, I'm more than willing to pay for advice/consultation especially if you can tell me how to install radiant floor heating properly. I've done a bunch of internet research on it, but I really want to get this right the first time.
