The Day the Furnace Died

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The “furnace” that came with my house is an odd beasty.  Placed on the wall between the dining room and living room, it slurps air from the dining room and blows it out in the living room.  The first thing I had to do when I tried to turn in on for the first time was replace the thermal couple so that it would kick on.  Because I was in the first month of a new job when I realized this need, I had to pay after-hours bonus for the guy who repaired it.  I also learned in the process that it is an obsolete model made by a Texas-based company that is now out of business.

Subsequently, the thing whined, moaned and clanked.  At the end of March, it went silent, leaving the house to grow colder and colder.

I knew what the problem was.  The fan had given up the fight against dust, dirt, pet hair and age.  I quietly thanks the powers that be for the gift of the darned thing waiting till spring to spin its last cycle, and shut it down completely on the principle that to continue to run it was simply to invite a house fire.

I sadly went over my budget.  Come autumn, I would need more heat than can be provided by the wall heater in the bathroom and an electric space heater.  What were my options?

Electrical space heaters:  Not very efficient, and the aged wiring in the house make that a resounding “no”, unless I can afford some extensive rewiring.  Furthermore, electricity tends to go OFF when ice coats the trees, as it likes to do around here every once in a while.  On the other hand, it has the benefit of not mucking up the inside air.  I think wistfully clean air to breath–gas heat gives me a head-ache.

The house is set up for natural gas.  The pipes are in place, there are nipples all over the house (indicating that it was not always heated from the current set-up.)  There is a fireplace in the living-room that does not turn on.

I puzzle over the plethora of heating options offered on the internet.  I type in “furnaces”, and realize that a “furnace” was once synonymous with smelting ore!  An article entitled “America’s Mysterious Furnace” viking pit furnaces in Ohio recounts findings of evidence of Viking settlements in Ohio.  Two of my World of Warcraft characters have the trade of smelting (See my song “I wish I was in Iron Forge Now” and the vocal at ).  It looked really interesting–smelting ore in a pit?  Must have been quite a process!

Well, I wasn’t going to be doing any real life smelting, so back to furnace research.  I note that if I install the right kind of appliance, I can get tax credits next year–but also note that a complete retooling of the house heating system is going to be expensive.  (See above note about going over the budget with a bit of despair.)
Ok.  Electricity has it’s problems, the gas heat dries the air, and I swear I get head-aches from it–no matter how correctly the stuff is set up.  Moving on…

Wood heat:  As those of you who have been following my articles have realized by now, I know wood heat very well.  However, modern technology has visited this oldest fuel.  Air-tight heaters and exterior water circulators offer some options.  I like the exterior furnace option;  I know far more about the mess a wood burner can create than I wish to know.  However, those blowers and pumps run on ELECTRICITY.  When this lovely invention gets its umbilical severed, bad things ensue.  I hate being cold.

Solar:  Wood may not be quite the oldest form of heat.  The sun has been around a few millenia, and it is generous with its warmth.  Unfortunately, cloud cover and related weather can put a hitch in that get-along.  Still, heat sinks of various sorts give rise to thoughts on the possible/impossible.  Solar heated water (hey, more savings!) looks interesting; I like the idea of Trombe walls with water tanks full of fish…Again, with the building/retooling.

Pellet Stoves:  Similar to wood heat…needs a chimney of some kind…interesting.  Has the advantage that the fuel is easy to tote and load.  Has the disadvantage that there might be a problem with getting the little wood pellets.

I get a brainstorm, and search Triond to see what has been published by us on the topic.  I find several gaming references to smelting, and some real world ones as well.  Guess those Viking pits weren’t as much news as I thought they were.  I rule out the articles about insulating and other tips for saving energy.  I settle in to read the articles dealing with heating houses.  A nice one is the Pros and Cons of Home Furnaces by Ajay Ajay Rationalist.   How Can I Save Money and Help the Economy? by BobCraig is an unabashed plug for heat pumps.  It is well-written and has good information.  I did look at those…the geothermal kind would involve too much digging for my urban location; the air kind looked interesting but expensive.  Again, with the what happens when the electricity goes off?

Wood Burning Furnace, to Install or Not to Install by Schaller is a thoughtful article that has excellent points about retooling for wood heat.  How to Cook with a Fireplace by John Carter  brought back some good memories, although it didn’t really help with my current dilemma.

At the end, I’m really not much closer to solving my heating problem than when I started.  My wishes have crystallized, however.  I know that I want something that I can afford to install, that doesn’t muck up the air in my house, that doesn’t leave me shivering in the event of a utility shut-down.  I want to heat the floor; I hate cold feet.  I love fire-places, but know they aren’t practical.

I give up and go to bed.  I do have to find an answer before the end of September.  But not tonight.  Maybe someone out there will write a spiffy article that I can read tomorrow that will solve all my problems.

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Don’t I just wish!  This picture was one of the illustration choices from Triond.  It is a ceramic tile stove.  Isn’t it beautiful?