The ancient contraption that heated my house died in November. More specifically, the blower fan died, so although the furnace would produce heat, the heat would slowly seep through the house like syrup rather than forcefully fill each room with its presence. The estimate options were $2,000 for a new furnace or $500 for a custom-built piece to make the blower work again. So I have a new furnace.

I thought it amusing to show some pictures of the old one. The only documentation on it is a tag from the utilities district dated 1967, so it was at least 40 years old (the repairman guessed 50). Rather than using standard filters of any sort, it had a large metal basket thingy over which one layered fiberglass from a roll (cut with a utility knife to fit). Inevitably I would end up with fiberglass shards in my fingers or fiberglass dust in the air (horribly healthy, I'm sure), and once I got the fiberglass itself caught in the blower fan. The basket slid into the bottom of the furnace, underneath the blower. The new one takes standard, rectangular cardboard-edge filters, which will be far more convenient (plus I'm not sure I'd have been able to find more of the roll-out fiberglass when I ran out - I "inherited" the roll I had when I bought the house).

I also got a new programmable digital thermostat to replace the unreliable analog one in my dining room. The old one had ADD. Setting it to 55 left the temperature around 50, but raising it to 60 would cause it to run until the house was around 67. The new one is much friendlier. Supposedly the higher energy efficiency (92% vs. 64%) should save money over the long run, although I'm dubious that it will "pay for itself in a few years" as the ads claim.

Labels: furnace

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