georgetownhomeowner
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Hi -- We're homeowners north of Boston who have had problems with our furnace ever since building our house six years ago. On Thursday when we lost heat again, on an 8-degree day, we finally found out why:
The unit that heats our first floor (roughly 1,700 sf) is 105,000BTUs. It should have been about 60,000 apparently. So, it's been short-cycling all this time, condensation was building up, and the inducer motor finally died. With no heat, we felt we had no choice but to replace the unit (with an 80,000BTU) for $3,300.
We called the builder immediately, who blamed the heating contractor. The contractor said they thought we were going to finish the basement, and that they sized the heating unit based on that. We had no plans to finish the basement, and it's still unfinished. We also found out the unit was made in 2001, but our house wasn't built until summer of 2002, and wasn't complete until December. I'm wondering if the contractor had the unit somewhere and just shoe-horned it in, not knowing or not caring that it was inappropriately sized.
We're going to try to recoup the cost of the new system from the original contractor. A failed furnace in a six-year old home, especially for such a clear-cut reason, seems unacceptable. Are we reading the situation right? Is there anything else I should try to find out? I have no idea how the contractor originally calculated the size unit we'd need, or any of the details about the system -- I didn't even know how many BTUs it was until it died. All of this is new to us, so please forgive our ignorance. Any advice or guidance would be helpful.
Thanks,
Georgetown Homeowner
The unit that heats our first floor (roughly 1,700 sf) is 105,000BTUs. It should have been about 60,000 apparently. So, it's been short-cycling all this time, condensation was building up, and the inducer motor finally died. With no heat, we felt we had no choice but to replace the unit (with an 80,000BTU) for $3,300.
We called the builder immediately, who blamed the heating contractor. The contractor said they thought we were going to finish the basement, and that they sized the heating unit based on that. We had no plans to finish the basement, and it's still unfinished. We also found out the unit was made in 2001, but our house wasn't built until summer of 2002, and wasn't complete until December. I'm wondering if the contractor had the unit somewhere and just shoe-horned it in, not knowing or not caring that it was inappropriately sized.
We're going to try to recoup the cost of the new system from the original contractor. A failed furnace in a six-year old home, especially for such a clear-cut reason, seems unacceptable. Are we reading the situation right? Is there anything else I should try to find out? I have no idea how the contractor originally calculated the size unit we'd need, or any of the details about the system -- I didn't even know how many BTUs it was until it died. All of this is new to us, so please forgive our ignorance. Any advice or guidance would be helpful.
Thanks,
Georgetown Homeowner