We won’t be cold this winter. And since the foothills of the Rockies see extreme weather, that’s a good thing.
Our old furnace has been maintained and repaired over the years. It’s not that it was doing a bad job, but since we’ve had it for almost forty years, we figured it might be time to get a new one. We also figured it was better to replace it now in the warm days of October rather than waiting for it to fail on a freezing day next February. So yesterday, we got our new furnace.
This is our old furnace.
This is our new high-efficiency furnace.
It’s half the size, produces more heat than the old furnace, and uses less energy. Plus we got a new humidifier, thermostat and carbon monoxide detectors. The installers tell us our new furnace is 93% efficient. They also tell us the old furnace was 76% efficient. It will be interesting to compare natural gas bills for this winter over last year’s numbers.
It took two installers a whole day to complete the installation, carting out the old, bringing in the new, hooking it all up, adding new pipes and venting, and establishing a drain for the water condensation that is a by-product of high-efficiency furnaces.
Since the installation, we’ve noticed that this thing runs very quietly and the house has a more even heat.
It’s a warm autumn this year. Usually we’ve had at least one snowfall by the end of September, but not this year. And not only that, the temperatures have only dropped below freezing on a couple of nights. I still bring in my planters if frost is predicted and, so far, we still have blooms.
So today I’m feeling gratitude for our brand new furnace and the warmth it promises. And I’m also feeling gratitude for these blooms.
Bigstockphoto.com #81957890