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mikehartigan

New furnace can't keep up

mikehartigan
10 years ago

I recently installed a Lennox EL296V furnace, along with a 14ACX Air Conditioner. This was a Costco deal, which, I assume, buys me a bit more protection, customer-service wise, than I otherwise would have gotten. (That remains to be seen.)

Granted, we've had a colder than normal January (pushing -20F on a couple of days), but the furnace is not able to maintain a temperature above 68-ish. It's running virtually 24 hours a day on Stage 2 (t-stat is configured as 1-stage - a separate, unrelated issue that's also grinding my gears). We've been supplementing the heat with the fireplace in the evening, extra blankets at night, and an incredible amount of sunlight (passive solar heat) during the day.

The dealer visited my home today to take measurements for another load calculation to determine if the system is under-sized.

He said that I may simply need to add attic insulation. He recommended I increase it from R-30 (code in 1990 when the home was built) to R-49 (code today). Frankly, though it wouldn't hurt, I don't think that's a legitimate solution.

He also suggested that he may be able to increase the gas pressure to get more heat from the burner. I'm not an expert, so I don't know if that's legitimate, or if he's simply killing time by shoveling BS until the weather warms up and the problem goes away by itself.

FWIW, my 23 year old Bryant furnace was around 90K BTU, 80%. The new one is 70K BTU, 96%. (doing the Math, these should be close enough to the same ballpark). It's important to note that the old furnace had no problem keeping the house warm in such outdoor temperatures

He said his goal is to make me happy. I said he could do that by giving me back my old furnace.

I can't shake the feeling that I'm in the process of being screwed. He's going to get back to me after he does another load calculation.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Questions I should ask?

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