New combustion chamber - or new furnace

[dpw-ct]

I have an old luxaire oil furnace and the combustion chamber collapsed I'm trying to figure out if I should try to find a replacement chamber (no luck finding it yet) or need to replace the entire furnace

Luxaire ser 42001-5290
Model 0w095mf series IAARE
Also any idea how to get a manual for this?

Thank you !!

 

[Dana]

The thing probably predates the Carter administration, and the odds that you'd find replacement components other than the burner are remote.

Before choosing replacement equipment, if you have any heating history on it at all it's worth running a fuel-use based heat load calculation. (I can walk you through those numbers if you're willing to share the information.) Most oil fired furnaces in New England are 3x+ oversized for the heating loads, which doesn't impact efficiency as much as it impacts comfort and noise (for the worse.) Ideally it would be less than 1.5x oversized. AFUE testing assumes 1.7x oversizing. At 1.4 x oversizing you are more than covered even at the Polar Vortex event extremes, and have a much quieter, less drafty heating system with less under & overshooting of the thermostat setpoints.

If your place doesn't have air conditioning and you're planning to be there for awhile it may be worth springing for a heat pump rather than an oil burner replacement (yes, they now have pretty good heat pumps for CT type climates, very different from 20-30 years ago), and at the anticipated cost of rooftop solar going forward (or even now, depending on CT subsidy levels) you should be able to cover the power used by the heat pump with solar at a net cost lower than $2/gallon oil (and WAY cheaper than the $4/gallon oil of only a few years ago.) A heat pump is going to cost more up front than a replacement oil-burner, but it's cleaner, and it air conditions. At 2o cents/kwh (pre-solar, a bit higher than the current 19cent price in CT) and an HSPF of 9 it's more expensive heating than with oil at $2 (last year's low price average), but cheaper than the recent 5 year average.

Oil: Source fuel energy 138,000 BTU/gallon, burned at 85% efficiency (if you keep it tuned up) nets 117,300 BTU.

HSPF 9.0 heat pump: 1 kwh delivers 9000 BTU (averaged over the season- efficiency varies with temp- more heat per kwh in spring & fall, less in winter) There are heat pumps with HSPF efficiencies north of 12, but they're more expensive up front.

So it takes 117,300/9000= 13 kwh to deliver the same amount of heat as a gallon of oil. At 20 cents/kwh that costs $2.60.

The current price of oil in CT is running about $2.70.

The current price of electricity in CT is about 19 cents/kwh (yours might differ, depending on which utility.)

The 25 year levelized cost of rooftop solar after federal tax credits & regional SREC subsidies is less than 15 cents/kwh. If the state or utility kicks in more it'll be even cheaper.

With a right-sized ducted heat pump you are almost always better off with a "set and forget" strategy on the thermostat rather than a deep overnight setback. With set-and-forget the internal backup resistance heating never comes on (except during PolarVortex events), but if you opt for deep setbacks it will come on during the recovery ramps, using more electricity in the ramp than was saved by the setback. To right size it you need to know the heat load, which makes the heat load calculation even more critical than when replacing it with another oil burner.

 

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[dpw-ct]

It's a rental and not occupied much in the winter. Any thoughts on using a universal combustion chamber from Lynn mfg

The thing probably predates the Carter administration, and the odds that you'd find replacement components other than the burner are remote.

Before choosing replacement equipment, if you have any heating history on it at all it's worth running a fuel-use based heat load calculation. (I can walk you through those numbers if you're willing to share the information.) Most oil fired furnaces in New England are 3x+ oversized for the heating loads, which doesn't impact efficiency as much as it impacts comfort and noise (for the worse.) Ideally it would be less than 1.5x oversized. AFUE testing assumes 1.7x oversizing. At 1.4 x oversizing you are more than covered even at the Polar Vortex event extremes, and have a much quieter, less drafty heating system with less under & overshooting of the thermostat setpoints.

If your place doesn't have air conditioning and you're planning to be there for awhile it may be worth springing for a heat pump rather than an oil burner replacement (yes, they now have pretty good heat pumps for CT type climates, very different from 20-30 years ago), and at the anticipated cost of rooftop solar going forward (or even now, depending on CT subsidy levels) you should be able to cover the power used by the heat pump with solar at a net cost lower than $2/gallon oil (and WAY cheaper than the $4/gallon oil of only a few years ago.) A heat pump is going to cost more up front than a replacement oil-burner, but it's cleaner, and it air conditions. At 2o cents/kwh (pre-solar, a bit higher than the current 19cent price in CT) and an HSPF of 9 it's more expensive heating than with oil at $2 (last year's low price average), but cheaper than the recent 5 year average.

Oil: Source fuel energy 138,000 BTU/gallon, burned at 85% efficiency (if you keep it tuned up) nets 117,300 BTU.

HSPF 9.0 heat pump: 1 kwh delivers 9000 BTU (averaged over the season- efficiency varies with temp- more heat per kwh in spring & fall, less in winter) There are heat pumps with HSPF efficiencies north of 12, but they're more expensive up front.

So it takes 117,300/9000= 13 kwh to deliver the same amount of heat as a gallon of oil. At 20 cents/kwh that costs $2.60.

The current price of oil in CT is running about $2.70.

The current price of electricity in CT is about 19 cents/kwh (yours might differ, depending on which utility.)

The 25 year levelized cost of rooftop solar after federal tax credits & regional SREC subsidies is less than 15 cents/kwh. If the state or utility kicks in more it'll be even cheaper.

With a right-sized ducted heat pump you are almost always better off with a "set and forget" strategy on the thermostat rather than a deep overnight setback. With set-and-forget the internal backup resistance heating never comes on (except during PolarVortex events), but if you opt for deep setbacks it will come on during the recovery ramps, using more electricity in the ramp than was saved by the setback. To right size it you need to know the heat load, which makes the heat load calculation even more critical than when replacing it with another oil burner.

A