JHZR2
Staff member
Hi,
In my home, I have a gas furnace (hot water) and hot water heater. Bth vent up the chimney.
The HW heater is about 6 years old, the furnace is about 22. The HW heater needs to be net to almost full hot to get good temperature for the shower... The furnace runs excellently.
My chimney needs some repointing and potentially some tera cotta work in the upper flue. No telling what needs to be done until some bricks start being removed... I guess it has the potential of being a pretty high dollar task to repair fully.
I dont have a fireplace, this is a small single flue chimney.
I have seen a lot of houses that have these new high efficiency furnaces and hot water heaters. I guess they have a bunch of extra recouperators in there or something like this, as thye vent out of the side of ones' home, through nothing but white PVC pipe!
Is this the wave of the future? Should I not worry about the chimney? Heck, should I have it removed from the roofline, and the remains within the house structure filled with concrete and re-bar? I can just wait until the furnace goes, then replace both with HE units.
Putting two holes in the side of the house seems a lot easier than doing a partial chmney rebuild.
OK, sure, if I bought a new furnace and HW heater tomorrow, or in a year from now... it would likely be *** for another 25+ years; enough time for me to think and rethink how to deal with the chimney. Its not like the chimney doesnt work or is in danger of falling over anyway... Its just that some pointing needs to be done, and the tera cota on the top is broken/chipped.
But do you think this will be one of those things where in x years, the only things that will be available are HE gas furnaces and water heaters, and thus I'm wasting $$$ to get a real good job done on the chimney? Id hate to spend a few thousand $$$ to repair it properly, then in a few years when the furnace goes, be stuck putting holes inthe side of my home anyway, and then having no use of the chimney, it essentially going to waste.
Sorry for the babbling... your opinions please?!?
Thanks!
JMH
In my home, I have a gas furnace (hot water) and hot water heater. Bth vent up the chimney.
The HW heater is about 6 years old, the furnace is about 22. The HW heater needs to be net to almost full hot to get good temperature for the shower... The furnace runs excellently.
My chimney needs some repointing and potentially some tera cotta work in the upper flue. No telling what needs to be done until some bricks start being removed... I guess it has the potential of being a pretty high dollar task to repair fully.
I dont have a fireplace, this is a small single flue chimney.
I have seen a lot of houses that have these new high efficiency furnaces and hot water heaters. I guess they have a bunch of extra recouperators in there or something like this, as thye vent out of the side of ones' home, through nothing but white PVC pipe!
Is this the wave of the future? Should I not worry about the chimney? Heck, should I have it removed from the roofline, and the remains within the house structure filled with concrete and re-bar? I can just wait until the furnace goes, then replace both with HE units.
Putting two holes in the side of the house seems a lot easier than doing a partial chmney rebuild.
OK, sure, if I bought a new furnace and HW heater tomorrow, or in a year from now... it would likely be *** for another 25+ years; enough time for me to think and rethink how to deal with the chimney. Its not like the chimney doesnt work or is in danger of falling over anyway... Its just that some pointing needs to be done, and the tera cota on the top is broken/chipped.
But do you think this will be one of those things where in x years, the only things that will be available are HE gas furnaces and water heaters, and thus I'm wasting $$$ to get a real good job done on the chimney? Id hate to spend a few thousand $$$ to repair it properly, then in a few years when the furnace goes, be stuck putting holes inthe side of my home anyway, and then having no use of the chimney, it essentially going to waste.
Sorry for the babbling... your opinions please?!?
Thanks!
JMH