Should I keep an old LP furnace, or update?

[KnuckleBuster]

I just bought an old house with a detached 2.5 car garage. There's decent insulation in the walls of the garage, plywood ceiling, no insulation in the overhead doors. There's an old (1978) Craftsman 75,000 BTU LP furnace in the center of the back wall, but no LP tanks.

I've been trying to hunt down a couple of used 100lb. propane tanks to use to fire up the furnace, but then I got thinking that it may not be the best way to go.

I'm working on the house and tinkering around in the garage, but would love to have heat (it would be the first time in my life that I'd have a heated garage) and be able to accomplish something this winter.

What are your thoughts? I know very little about furnaces - my house now has 240V electric heaters that keep the house at 60 degrees all winter long and only hurts a little - nowhere near as painful as my brother's propane bills. I saw a couple of posts about the Fahrenheat FUH5 and thought they looked interesting (one heater would cost me a little less than two 100lb. propane tanks).

Thanks!

 

[65Stang]

I have a propane furnace that heats my detached two car garage. Works great as it is rated for a much larger space.

Is the furnace currently installed at its current location or is it just an extra piece of machinery?

 

[KnuckleBuster]

It's as "installed" as it could ever be, I guess. I'm assuming that it came out of a trailer or something. The air intake is at the top and the hot air vents are at the bottom. It's in the center of the back wall with a small chimney going out through the same wall. It was hooked up and running at one point - so I was told by the previous owner.

 

[philjafo]

The average life expectancy of a high efficiency furnace is 12 to 15 years, being a mid efficiency or 80% furnace 15 to 20 years on the older ones. So its very old as furnaces go, doesn't mean its unusable or unsafe but I would highly recommend getting it inspected before use, carbon monoxide is no joke. If its in good shape use it till it quits, I wouldn't recommend putting a dime into any repairs.

 

[koditten]

If the furnace is safe, it will take many, many years to offset the price of a new unit. 15% more efficiency of a new unit will cost alot more then 10 bucks a month in savings in heating gas.

I did the math for my shop boiler. A standard 83% efficient boiler was 1200 bucks, a 96% efficient boiler was 3500 bucks. It would take me 22 years to break even. Easy math at that time.

KO

 

[CNGsaves]

Not sure I follow the facts or your logic?? You've got garage that has forced air-type LP furnace "installed" on back wall but somehow it does not have any kind of LP fuel supply? Also, your house is all electric??

Assuming the above facts, you could just attach 100 lb tank to the LP furnace in the garage. If you're near OKC or Tulsa, I've found used 100 lb LP tanks for $75 or $100. See an example at:
http://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/tls/3465034103.html

Or brand new, the 100 lb LP tanks are $124 (shipping might be scary) at:
http://www.midlandhardware.com/Manc...gdftrk=gdfV25189_a_7c1552_a_7c6274_a_7c657312

Any type of dollar budget for this project? Have you located low cost rural-type propane vendor to fill up the tanks if you go that way? FYI- -not a good idea to just bring LP tanks into your local U-Haul / rental company and blindly refill as price will be nearly whopping $4/gallon.

 

[KnuckleBuster]

The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to go with a Fahrenheat FUH5. This old furnace "looks" to be in good condition, but it is OLD. I just bought this house w/garage and I'm fixing both up. The house I'm living in now has the electric heat.

The furnace sits up against the back wall of the garage on a plywood box with metal vents in it - there is no ducting. A copper pipe runs from the unit, through the wall of the garage and lays outside with a regulator on the end. The previous owner had it hooked up to a tank, but the tank was removed before I bought the place.

I'd hate to go buy a 100lb. tank, get it filled, hook it up, then find out that the old furnace doesn't work. At that point, I'd be in the hole for the same amount of money as the Fahrenheat FUH5 (roughly).

I'm in upstate NY, by the way.

 

[CNGsaves]

The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to go with a Fahrenheat FUH5. This old furnace "looks" to be in good condition, but it is OLD. I just bought this house w/garage and I'm fixing both up. The house I'm living in now has the electric heat.

The furnace sits up against the back wall of the garage on a plywood box with metal vents in it - there is no ducting. A copper pipe runs from the unit, through the wall of the garage and lays outside with a regulator on the end. The previous owner had it hooked up to a tank, but the tank was removed before I bought the place.

I'd hate to go buy a 100lb. tank, get it filled, hook it up, then find out that the old furnace doesn't work. At that point, I'd be in the hole for the same amount of money as the Fahrenheat FUH5 (roughly).

I'm in upstate NY, by the way.

Easy to test . . . . connect small 20 lb LP (propane bottle BBQ size) to the furnace outside at the regulator. Only thing else that forced-air furnace needs is 110v electric. Sounds like this is perfectly good solution for heating the garage. Isn't the realtor who sold you the house, along with the prior owner still alive??, You can just pick up the phone and give them call about condition of that garage furnace!!

I'm no HVAC expert, but sure some pictures would surely help the GJ experts to give you even more specific solutions. Thus, post some pictures of outside regulator connection, along with pic of furnace itself, and finally exhaust flue pipes.

If it's 75K Btu with minimal insulation in garage (and you're in upstate NY), then it's sounding even more PERFECT for your situation.

Why try to re-invent the wheel or fix something that's not broken? Also, your first priority will be insulating walls and celing. That Fahrenheat electric heater won't make a dent in your cold garage without insulation - - you'll just be throwing away good money to electric company.

Go with the LP furnace you've got for now, after testing with BBQ size LP bottle and if worried about carbon monoxide, then purchase a cheap CM detector like this for $22:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FDLFLK/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[KnuckleBuster]

I tried hooking up a BBQ cylinder to it, but the BBQ tank's regulator shut off the flow as soon as I tried to light the furnace - excessive flow. I had the same problem when I set up my backyard aluminum casting furnace.

I'll try and get some photos this weekend.

 

[theoldwizard1]

If the furnace is safe, it will take many, many years to offset the price of a new unit.

First things first. Get it hooked up to a 20lb BBQ tank and have a tech come out and inspect it !

It may or may NOT be worth keeping !

 

[Hawk]

First things first. Get it hooked up to a 20lb BBQ tank and have a tech come out and inspect it !

It may or may NOT be worth keeping !

But it is worth a few bucks to have it checked out.