Home Heating..

[norgeway]

Coleman AC

Contractors tell people they cant put ac on a small pipe system...they are telling a lie just to sell new ductwork, the Coleman system moved just as much air as a new large duct unit does, it just moved the air much faster under higher pressure, AC works great on them.Coleman did offer AC on their units in the 50s and 60s,Dunham Bush made a unit called a space pack which used even smaller ducts and simple round vents in the ceiling, they are about 2 inches in diameter, this system is still being made but under another name.

 

[tolivac]

Work-Two Cleaver-Brooks oil fired boilers.Home-Lennox heat pump and a Smart Heat portable heater.Portable heater in den-feels good running it while watching movies on those cold nights!
Defunct heater-good you got some entertainment out of it-Great for target practice!Would like one of those to try out my .308,300 Weatherby and AR-15 on!There used to be a dump-gravel,sandpit out here where they used such stuff for fill.I would take parts from the washers and use the rest for practice!6.5X55MM Swedish Mauser did great in draing water heaters dumpted there.My M1 Garand was good at sinking fridges on the pond!Now the place is a housing development-no more target shoots out there now!

 

[xraytech]

I have a 1995 ComfortMaker high efficiency gas furnace that does pretty well.
I also have a large Englander free standing wood burner that I use to supplement the furnace when it is cold enough

 

[a440]

Hans-

I lived in a home here in Atlanta that had a 1950's Coleman "Blend - Air" system.  It was fantastic!  It was the hardest reason to leave that home.  I am sure it is still running strong.  Every home on the block actually had the same furnace system built by Coleman.  All of the homes must had the same building contractor.

 

Joe - Do you have pictures of your Thermo - Pride Furnace.  There are quite a few in my neighborhood that are still going strong.  All HVAC contractors that I talk to say that Thermo-Pride makes the best furnaces these days.  Their heat exchangers are hand welded. 

 

The furnace in the home I live in now an old Janitrol.  Never skips a beat very winter.

 

 

[davey7]

Chicago was never big on oil. Some of the outlying areas had oil heating though, especially where gas lines hadn't been run yet. Peoples Gas was pushing gas for heating in the 20's - just saw some ads in old newspapers for that.

My building was built with oil heat in 26/27 and switched to natural gas in '71. I suspect the tank was huge.

Space Pack is still around - Unico makes it. Very common in old houses and apartment retrofits. They use fibrous ducts and sometimes a steam coil (but no humidification due to fiber ducts). I think I've seen flexible metal ducts too, in addition to small diameter trunking.

 

[norgeway]

New furnaces

Do as a rule use less fuel, but both gas and oil furnaces are now nightmares full of circuit boards and electronic controls that cost big bucks when they fail, as far as I know, Thermo Pride and Hallmark are the only 2 companies that make a standard simple well built oil furnace, and I don't know of anyone who still makes a simple gas furnace with cast iron burners and a standing pilot.I don't care if it does cost a little more to run, it costs a LOT LESS to KEEP it running.

 

[mayguy]

Oil is a thing of the past around here.. Most home has gas, and even in the rule area, they are on LP. The house I grew up in had oil, not sure what brand it was as I was only 7 when it was changed out to a gas Williamson Temp-O-Matic. And, there was a lot of Green Colonial, and Williamson, and small amount of Lennox of what I saw growing up.

Both of my grandparents had Williamson Oil-Saver furnace and it as a larger unit.

 

[abcomatic]

I lived in a house once that had a Lennox oil burning furnace. Sometimes it would pump oil in but not ignite it. I would go down to the basement, turn off the control, throw a match into the burner. It would ignite with a huge wooosh sound and then I would turn it back on. I suppose I could have blown the place up but didn't. I think the electrode that was in-front-of the nossle that pumped in the oil was carboned over? That was in the 70's and I would guess the furnace was from the 50's when the house was built?

 

[retro-man]

The house I grew up in had a Century oil furnace. It was forced hot air. My parents has central A/C installed about 1965, into that furnace. Great heat and cooling. It was replaced about 10 years ago but don't know the name of the new one. The coils were still good in the furnace but they replaced the outside unit. I think the original was a Carrier and the new one is a Traine. The furnace lasted over 40 years.
Jon

 

[warmsecondrinse]

@norgeway

My parents' house built in late 60's had a Coleman furnace. It was replaced in the 90's for reasons that never were explained... As far as I knew it never had any problems.

Not a small duct system though.

Jim

 

[volsboy1]

For the people up north you need to ditch oil and go with a Heat Pump.. We have a American Standard 20 Heritage twin recip compressor and Mitsubishi

Hyper-Heat Heat pump here.The A/S is a 4 ton the Mitsubishi is a 2 ton unit..

The Mitsubishi can heat without back up heat till its -15 F which is great..

The other night when it got down to about 0 I turned off the American Standard well I turned it to fan setting and turned up the Mitsubishi to 71..

It had no problems keeping the rest of the house at 65 degress ..The A/S was still heating but it would have to turn on the back up coils every now and

then to maintain it. The Mitsubishi still had 100+ air  coming out of the air handler even at 0 ..

Heat pumps are not like they used to be were they cant heat below 40 degress..The A/S did not change to the 4 ton compressor till it was 20 outside ..

I don't see how you folks up north can afford heating oil it costs way to much..

 

[wayupnorth]

Heat pumps are really catching on here. Friends of mine put 2 of those Mitsubishi models in and their oil never runs and they are very comfortable. Said their total investment for the 2 was about $4500.[this post was last edited: 2/27/2015-18:21]

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Here in the new townhouse:

We have a Bryant forced air furnace with a high efficieny burner system. It also is tied to an A/C system of the same make. So far the system is working well, the house is nice and cozy.
We also have a Heat and Glow NG fireplace which heats the house so well that the furnace does not run while it is on.
WK78.

 

[tolivac]

The Lennox heat pump I have is AWFUL!!!Would LOVE to replace it with gas heat.Right now the thing is running full time to keep up.It has been recently checked and refrigerant levels topped up.the unit makes an EXCELLENT AC in the summer.BUT--the cost estimates of replacing my system would be 6-8 grand.Just have to put up with the inadequite heatpump and my portable heater for now.Heat pump tech has improved,though-those little Mitshubishi units work well as heaters or coolers.Have several here at work.Yes,would be nice at home!There is one small house in my neighborhood that has one.Next to it is an old Amana unit.

 

[arbilab]

This building is still half-full of through-wall heatpumps from 2000. Yes, the ones that stop working at 39F and the resistance coil doesn't come on until the room temp is 10* below the setpoint unless outside temp is below 30. For those 10 degrees the thing just blows cold air. Whoever wrote that firmware should have his fingers surgically removed. With a chainsaw.

 

[tolivac]

The coil heater in my unit was not connected.sort of wished it was.Maybe the installer of my unit should have had his COLD fingers cut off with your chainsaw-or I could use my bandsaw!Both tools are essentually similar-endless cutting loop!

 

[norgeway]

Im no

heat pump fan, my experience with them has been, the ones made in the 60s and 70s are worlds ahead of the stuff made today..2 examples, A good friend installed a International heat pump in 1967, it ran until the early 90s , he had the same company install a new Janitrol , that installed the International, the international ran all those years with very little attention, low electric bills and a warm house, the Janitrol was a constant money pit with very high electric bills and a drafty cold house...after 2 years of this, he changed to gas...Example 2, in 76 my Uncle built a new house,he used the then new foam insulation,thermopane windows, and generally high quality energy saving construction, he installed a Carrier heat pump that was wonderful, about 5 years ago lightning got it, he had another one that was a very expensive Carrier that was the highest rated seer at the time...My Aunt and Uncle despise it, their electric bill went up over 20 percent and despite repeated service calls, it has cost much more to run, with a most uncomfortable house, drafty and cold unless you kick on the strip heat, Don and I put a heat pump in our last house, it was a Payne, in the 2 years we had it our electric bill ran 150 to 250 dollars a month...in a 950 square foot house!!,,,No thanks, for heat give me FIRE!

 

[circlew]

I had my mind made up that I was going to have geothermal HVAC installed as part of the renovation project. I got three bids, and they all came in between 35 and 40 thousand. I changed my mind and didn't get it, but have heard prices are down the last year or so.

 

[norgeway]

Geothermal..

They uit this in in our new Assisted Living building at work...it cost a fortune to install, and averages at least two or three very expensive service calls a month, I think people get sold on how much they are going to save, when they are never told how much its going to cost to install and maintain, Yes baseboard electric heat costs more to run, but it runs for 50 or more years with virtually no upkeep, A regular old fashioned standing pilot natural draft gas furnace will use more gas, but it also has many less things to go wrong, and therefore costs much less to keep up , these new generation HVAC companies are interested in 1 thing, selling you something they know will initially make them lots of money, and will keep you spending money on it for years to come,The oil furnace guys try to sell you a new high efficiency burner for your 50 year old furnace, dumb, because the burner you have is quieter, much better built and safer...it goes on and on..

 

[joelippard]

Did someone say pictures? Here are a few of the old gal. She's hot as hell!