Thoughts on the Goodman GMSS96060 furnace

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Well my house has PEX pipes and one of them was leaking at the 90 in the wall that feeds the washer. Found it early when I was under the house in the crawl space looking for a bad cable wire. The whole floor has insulation inside a plastic liner with the pipes and heat ducts inside it so if there's a leak its hard to find till the insulation and plastic fills up with water.
Luckily they gave me a year of home repair insurance with closing so I used it rather then do it myself.
Cost 60 bucks copay and was fixed 2 days after I called.
Hadn't been leaking long so drywall and framing was all fine. Nice thing about pex is its easy to deal with, tends not to split open if it freezes, and like that. I even have heat tape already installed onto the main incoming water line with a outlet on the top of the crawl space by a vent that includes the main shutoff valve. I need to redo the shutoff someday as the rehaber did a lousy job cutting out the old one and putting in the new one, it barely seeps where he did a crooked cut and put the crimp too close to the cut.
Moms house is a 90 manufactured and some of the pipes in the wall are copper but underneath is pex as well and she just had the pipe feeding the second bathrooms toilet crack.
Lucky for her her house had the option to install shutoffs for all the pipes leading to fixtures. She didn't opt to have them added but the pipes still have drop downs designed to be easy to cut out and add the shutoffs, they also have threaded stoppers they took off and left under the house when they were told to just connect everything directly. I was able to unscrew the adapters and put the caps back on the pipes which shut off the water till she got a real plumber out to fix it.
Hers was leaking so bad you could hear the water running and all the plastic wrap and insulation was soaked. They ended up replacing all of it and hard to say how long it took for all the water to evaporate.
Hoping mine has extra shut offs because there are access panels that say electric and plumbing on them but not going to crawl under there and drop one till its warm and I feel like it.
 
3,200 sqft. Pretty efficient for its size after putting some effort into it. Heating isn't cheap but it's been quite reasonable since going HE on the downstairs furnace, plus we don't like to be uncomfortable so the heat stays on.
 
What is a typical gas bill?

Does it carry the freight on these cold days?

BTW 9 here now, down to 2 above with wind chill of -20
 
Gas bill this December was $89.18 and used 159 therms. Last January was $253.31 and we used 307 therms. Last January was a typical cold January and December was pretty mild.

Downstairs is 1,850 sqft, furnace is 60,000 BTU's, it runs continuously in first stage at these temps and cycles up to second stage periodically. It holds at 72 just fine down to -15 outside. Upstairs furnace is so oversized that I locked it to 1st stage and it will never run continuous even on the worst days. The downstairs furnace is currently running continuously in 1st stage, set at 72 and its 5 degrees outside. I normally keep it on 70 when its a bit more mild out.
 
Not bad

considering the size of your place. Last winter in the condo, I had a 157.00 gas bill. I can't recall the sq foot precisely but it was a bit under 1000 sq foot with a Heil/Quaker furnace manufactured in the mid 80's. Due to the 2 story layout, I had to run it about 71 downstairs to stay remotely comfortable whilst upstairs it would sometimes hi 75 or so. One of the reasons I bought this place; single level slab on grade construction.

I think the next bill will be much more indicative of the real climate around here. I'm running a Delonghi oil filled heater in the garage right now to protect the utility tub faucet (garage, per code, is not heated). Garage temp is just under 50 degrees and temp dropped to 6 since last post but I think the wind has died down a bit.
 
I'm happy with the bill considering the thermostat is never below 70. It used to be a different story with the old slightly oversized 80% furnace though, there was a winter that the gas bill was over $400 and the therms used was over 450. Not sure how it got so out of hand that one January but I never let it happen again. The new properly sized 97% furnace makes a huge difference in the bill and in comfort.
 
Hmmm.

 

I'm heating a bit larger place with one furnace, and at that temp it does not run all the time.  I do use CAC, that is a big help, but even last year at -15 or more the second stage on my Lenox furnace rarely kicked in.  Mine is 97% efficient too.

 

I have added insulation to the attic, not the R50 now recommended, I used Tyvek when I resided the house- but a big chunk is brick so not much I can do there, added storms on most of the windows, but only R13 in the walls - overall I'd call it moderately tight.  We pretty much get the weather Chicago gets here in mid MI too.  I looked and my Dec gas usage was $98 for 15.7mcu.
 
Sounds like a size down in furnace would be a good idea for next time.

The way mine operates is how they're all supposed to operate, sized properly so second stage actually comes on in extreme cold and not just always only first stage like the majority of two stage furnace installations are due to oversizing. That way the furnace has real long cycle times allowing for consistent heat output, like a hot water heating system operates - always putting out heat. My furnace hasn't shut off since about 4:30 PM.
 
No, only 90k unit, well sized. Replaced a 160k unit, now that was oversized...

I think the continuous air circulation helps greatly, would not ever do a furnace with out it.
 
The readings from today were just posted online. The usage for January was 286 therms, as compared to last January's 307. Avg. temp this year: 29.7. Last January: 23.9. The usage is a little high compared to other months with a similar average temp, I wanna say it may be because of the gas range that we didn't have last year, and the billing period does cover the christmas season when we were using it a ton.
The paper bill hasn't posted yet so I don't know the itemized cost of gas, but the bill with gas and electric combined is $262.76, and the electric portion should be around $110.
 
Ok so the gas cost for that 286 therms used was $145.68, that is substantially cheaper then last year when nearly the same usage in February cost $217.85 for 276 therms used.
 
Ben

Do you still have your Vornado heater? I stumbled across your video from 2009 and saw that model is still built in USA so I ordered one.
 
Awesome

I picked up a VH200 which is a new model and really like it so far, doesn't run scorching hot (but still sucks nearly 1500 watts), and is quiet. I stress the quiet part because I don't think a heater should make any noise. (I also didn't want a radiator or quartz because I have a radiator, and the quartz is unsettling to watch glow like they do). Then I saw your AVH2 video and had to have probably the only consumer heater left that's built in the USA. The VH200 is Chinapride but seems like it's built alright.
 
One year, at the condo

I pretty much ran both heaters most of the winter in an effort to cut down on the gas bill. Well I did alright. But the light bill was outta sight let me tell you. I still have them but I don't turn them on any more. I use an oil filled radiator style heater in the garage when the temp is below 10.........which we're supposed to have tonight!

Ugh!
 
So I got my AVH2, wasn't long before I plugged it into my Kill-A-Watt and what I saw was quite a pleasant surprise for a consumer space heater, a variable fan and heating element control! I'm just playing with it right now but it seems it will ramp the element down to as low as 50 watts! And will go anywhere between that and full power. I definitely may be taking the VH200 back now, it's nowhere as sophisticated and has a plastic smell that hasn't gone away yet.
 
 
I've had an AVH2 for several years.  Run it only in the bedroom at night.  It emits a noticeable burning-dust odor sometimes when the heat output ramps up on a cold snap after it has been operating throttled-back for a while.
 
Does yours hum? I'm noticing a kind of loud comparative-to-the-fan hum on this one that's starting to get annoying. Sounds like a transformer hum.
 
 
It sometimes has a noticeable hum for several minutes when first turned on, settles down to normal (whatever is that, LOL).  May be the fan motor in my case.  I need to investigate how to disassemble it to blow out all the dust, maybe lube the fan motor.
 
I listened closely and it's the fan motor on mine, it's a hum/buzzing sound more noticeable when it's on low. If it keeps up I'm taking it back.

 
Went and returned the VH200 and AVH2 in exchange for an AVH10 with the sleek design and digital controls. Very impressed by how quiet it is but I don't care for how quickly it cycles on and off (though hardly audible as it does so) making my lights flicker frequently. It has a multi step or near variable control like the AVH2. Probably just gonna bring it back and stick with manual controls.
 
January bill

I don't believe this. But here it is in black and white. And it was a READ reading, not a guesstimate.

Rate RS(T)
Customer Charge - 1 Month $15.06
Price-to-Compare Commodity $2.0000 per MCF 2.00
Delivery Charge
1.0 MCF @ $6.7800 6.78
Demand (Capacity Charge) $0.7100 per MCF .71
State Tax Surcharge Cr .01
Total Current Charges $24.56
Total Account Balance $24.56
Peoples TWP current charges include $0.40 in state taxes

Billing cycle Jan 12 to Feb 11.
 
Your billing is unfamiliar to me and therefore very confusing. Obviously you're billed in MCF, but which number is your usage? Something is way off on that bill.
I would think they must've overestimated you last time or your meter is broken.
 
Beats me gusherb

Meter was newly installed when the house was built. I'm not going to question it with the gas company; I bet a lot of folks would love to have that kind of gas bill.
 
They'll figure it out at some point.

I got a look at the January bills for my moms business and my dads building (same building separate heat sources).

The building (two apartments on two floors, completely uninsulated, leaky ass windows) was only $352. 544 therms were used. Comparatively last Februarys bill was 568 therms and $556. First time ever seeing a January bill below $500.

The business used 183 therms and was $145. Last February was 181 therms and $206.

Rates have gone down dramatically.
 
Gas bill at home for February was $130.68. 257 therms used. Electric: $96.65. 722 Kwh's used. Total combined bill: 227.33.

This winter has been much easier on the wallet.
 
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