Well, after 20+ years of stellar service, my forced-air natural gas furnace will not deliver gas to the combustion chamber. It cost me $105 to diagnose that the gas valve is now defunct, sniff.
Dilemma - pay another ~$700 to fix it with the probability that the heat ex-changer will fail within the next year or so, or, go with a whole new unit. Prudence tells me that new is the answer.
Along with replacing the gas furnace (gas is getting cheaper here) I also need to replace our central AC unit as well, although electricity is increasing in price here. So I guess that a heat pump is probably the best way to go. Whatever way I choose, it will cost as bundle I'm afraid.
My gas fireplace still works & the house seemed to maintain 16C throughout the night with an outside temp of 2C even with all heating off. Thankfully, we aren't living where there is a real cold winter going on right now...
TAM
