Slightly Off Center

So the furnace replacement crew arrived on schedule Wednesday morning. Denise and the cats removed to the bedroom while they tore out the old unit, climbed up the roof to bang on the chimney and install the new flue liner. I left them to it around 11 am, went down to Club Mud to handle casseroles, from there at 2 pm over to the fairgrounds to set up for Holiday Market.

I was up on the step ladder hanging my booth sign at 3:40 pm when my cell rang. It was our contact from Marshall's Heating and Air Conditioning, saying they couldn't install our furnace.

He'd made a mistake; he'd quoted a unit, 80% efficient, that wasn't legal to install in our situation, a furnace closet adjoining a bedroom. His boss had caught the error on a site visit, and shut the whole process down. He'd have to send us a revised quote on a different, more efficient system that met the current building code.

I was good. I didn't swear. I did nearly cry. We'd been without heat for twenty days at this point, and the thought of Thanksgiving in the cold just about broke me. He promised to send over some space heaters for us to use, which i didn't have high hopes for. The one I have now will barely heat a small bathroom with the door closed. But I said thank you, and that I couldn't talk about this now, I was tired, my knee hurt, and I needed to focus on getting my booth set up. Called Denise to break the news, but she was at physical therapy and it went to voice mail.

The space heaters are rather better than I expected. Higher power, and they have a safety switch that shuts them down if they go off vertical; if, say, you pick one up to move it, or the cats knock them over. So we can leave them on all day. With one in the bedroom, one in the kitchen, and the radiant heater by the table, Thanksgiving was almost cosy.

Got the new proposal(s) Wednesday night, for a 95% one-stage furnace and a 96% two-stage, although the numbers didn't make sense. The one he said was between the original unit and the more efficient two-stage in cost seemed to actually be about $500 more. Confusing. Finally talked to him today and discovered he'd got the prices reversed, so we settled on the one-stage unit, he'd put in an order, and hopefully could install it on Tuesday. Thursday at latest.

Fingers crossed. Toes crossed.

Had the repair guy out yesterday afternoon to see why our furnace wouldn't work. After poking around for a bit, and borrowing a lighter from me, he gave me the bad news: the heat exchanger is cracked. This means exhaust gases were getting into the heating ducts, and back pressure from the blower was also smothering the burners, both of which could cause carbon monoxide. 

Unfortunately for us, the replacement part is no longer being manufactured, not surprising, considering that the furnace was old 24 years ago, when we bought the house. They're sending someone out tomorrow to give us a quote on a replacement unit.  I asked about the timeline for replacement, and was told that, as we're without heat in the cold season, we get moved toward the top of the list. It could be as early as the end of next week--when we'll be away at Clayfolk. But certainly within two weeks.

Brrr.