Can I convert an 80% eff furnace to a 100% eff? I have an older furnace that I want to put in a house but the house has no chimney. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Jeff

Can I convert an 80% eff furnace to a 100% eff

No

Add a chimney or buy a 90+ furnace

By the time you spend all the $$$ necessary to make the 80+ work with a side vent you can just get a higher efficiency furnace.

I would mention that some 80 % models can be side vented or use B vent for a chimney.

Can I convert an 80% eff furnace to a 100% eff? I have an older furnace that I want to put in a house but the house has no chimney. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Jeff

First off there is no such thing as a 100 percent efficient furnace.

Second, no you can not make your current furnace more efficient. (at least not by large amounts)

But I believe your questions is, can you side vent an eighty percent furnace. Need to either look in your factory supplied owners manual, or contact the manufacturer of the furnace and ask their advice.

Man, if you could make a 100% efficient furnace, you wouldn't have to work another day in your life! :p

Note: Electric furnaces are 100% efficient.

Note: Electric furnaces are 100% efficient.

Not if you take the efficiency of the power generation and transmission process into account. Then they are much lower than the 80% furnace in your house. I was implying a COMBUSTION furnace. Even power plants can't convert 100% of the heat energy in the fuel to electricity, and they are designed for maximum efficiency.

I understand that. You just said 100% furnace and the electric furnace is 100% efficient. Just having some fun LOL.

Yea, HVAC1000 didn't say where the heat went along the way, but electricity is 100% efficient in converting to heat whether it be the transmissions lines, the heating element or the connections.

How true. Strait electric heat is also expensive except at my second home in Indiana. Strait electric is cheaper than propane in Indiana.

That's because everything is better in Hoosier-ville :)

I'm curious:

Where is the Electric Strait in Indiana?

Strait - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait)

It's called Lake Michigan

hvac1000,

No insult taken. Just should have defined my terms better in the first place. :-)

EPM

Just to add my input. The way I see it, if there were such a thing as "100 percent efficient anything" then it wouldn't cost you a dime to run it. Maybe 99.9 percent, but 100 percent. I have a hard time grasping that. There will always be a fraction of a percent of heat loss though the wires, even in the furnace itself.

No insult was intended. It was a joke that had been played on me many years ago also. I also believe nothing is 100% efficient if you go back far enough in the supply chain. Power plants are not 100% efficient not even a nuke model.

I do believe we have gotton off course, and are now debating amongst ourselves. Haven't seen a reply from jhatten for some time. Yet here I am adding another post. Weird. Good times. Lol

Many questions are asked and answers given but never a reply from the poster. Usually it is always a strange question and many are from students looking for help with homework. LOL

I understand. But why are we still here? Im here because I enjoy chatting with you folks.

Same here.

Hvac, are you familiar with NDSCS. North dakota state college of science?

NO I am not.

I went to school there. Just thought you might now some of the professors. Course I can't remember most of their names anyway, so I guess doesn't really matter. Good school, just wish I would have paid a little more attention to study instead of extra caricular activities. Probably would have saved me a lot of visits to the school of hard knocks.

I went to school there. Just thought you might now some of the professors. Course i can't remember most of thier names anyway, so i guess doesnt really matter. Good school, just wish i would have paid a little more attention to study instead of extra caricular activities. Probably would have saved me alot of visits to the school of hard knocks.

While I do have some book work requirements for my recertification classes most of the time is devoted to hands on training. It is always more educational (fun) to actually work on equipment than it is to just read a book on it. Uniweld just sent me some new torch tips. They are not for sale as of yet but they wanted to get some opinions on how well they were liked. They were twist design and offer about 300 degrees more heat when used on Oxygen/Acetylene setups. They work great and the time spent with them was very educational especially since we had some new style rods to work with from Harris. I teach augratis (for free) just for the pleasure of it and to burn up some time since I have been retired. I also feel that I am giving something back to the industry that gave me so much in my life.

Always been a hands on guy myself, never did enjoy the book work. But part of the process I guess. I have learned more buy doing than reading( hence the school of hard knocks) I also have to take cec (continuing education classes) for my pluming license, also have to retest every three years for my med gas certification. I have heard rumors that eventually we will be required to take cec's for our refrigeration license(dont think it would be a bad thing with all the changes over the years) Actually went to school for refrigeration and air conditioning, got my foot in the door of a plumbing and heating company, and have pretty much widened my horizons. I mostly do plumbing, but also have to take care of med gas, and all residential heating a cooling service work. Ive got a lot to learn. I live in a relatively small town, so it pays to be able to do little of everything. I sometimes feel a little overwhelmed. Lot of sleepless nights. But I wouldn't change a thing.(except to someday own my own plumbing and heating company). Which would cause many, many more sleepless nights.

HVAC/refrigeration recert classes are mandatory here. 30 hours every 3 years. If you miss the classes you have to take the long test all over and that can be difficult for some. They put your cert in suspension and you got to pay the fine plus the testing. OUCH.

Hope I didn't miss something in the mail. Does it vary from state to state? Like a said, I had heard rumors about recert classes in the future(here), mostly from my parts suppliers. But have never heard much more about it. I would be more than willing to take the classes, could be very helpful in the next few years for sure, with r-22 going the way of r-12 eventually. Speaking of r-22, if a guy had a whole lotta spare cash,(which I dont) I would definitely stock up on it right now. Could be lucrative someday.

At one time there was a skid of R-12 sitting behind a locked cage in a section of my old building. I lease the rest out but kept just a small space. I am also sitting on some R-22 and still have a few pressurised jugs of R-11 for my own personal use just in case I might need it. An R-11 flush using the machine I have cleans up a dirty system right now. There are some new flushing agents out there but it is hard to beat R-11 with the proper flush machine.

BTW class requirements do vary but the 30 hour part is pretty much average for time. Some areas have no requirements since there is no enforcement.

R-11 must have been before my time. Sounds like a good thing to secretly have on hand.

I definitely live in a no enforcement area. I would prefer that it was more enforced, so that every and tom wouldn't be able to deal with regrigerants like its toy.



What happens if I move somewhere that requires the recirt, and I haven't been required to have them where I currently live. Will I have to retake the test, or start taking the classes once I move?

I think it all depends on the cert in question. As far as I know, the EPA cert doesn't require a recertification in any section of the country. I do know that NATE requires it.

Good, thanks for the info. I'm safe and legal.

Yep on the NATE. I Procter for the testing.

Hvac, I answered a question from rocky21, told him that I was hoping he got some more help from some of the other guys on this site, hope you will check out his post and help him out.