I Replaced My Furnace With A 96% High Efficiency.

[@atschirner]

Dave, I didn't see it mentioned in the comments but our experience was going from a 80% to 90+ we had to downsize the flue for our gas water heater. It was explained that the loss of exhaust btu's from the furnace could cause backflow on cold days. Your mileage may vary....

[@AmericanFarmerHVAC2024]

Good call on the btus. If you have nice new windows and good insulation you don't need to oversize at all.

[@7_of_9]

You are the best!! After switching from gas furnace to a Daikin heat pump I feel like I was living 50 years in the past, and switching from gas stove I feel like I am living 50 years in the future !! I upgraded my water tank from gas to heat pump and just wow, then I went ahead and got two GE washer/dryer in 1 and holy smoke!!!! Next is solar panel with batteries and a whole house generator connected to the outside gas line away from the house. Please stop using gas you are living in the past and not to mention that even my asthma has gone away after the switch!!! Save on energy, medication, and live longer!

[@CCCC-tq8yo]

15 min later did u

[@picklerix6162]

Not sure how a gas furnace caused asthma? Heat pumps work well in southern climates but my relatives up north complain about their electric bills because their heat pumps can’t heat their homes properly when the temperature drops into the 20’s so the emergency electric heating strips kick on.

[@ZERO-F2G-]

@@picklerix6162 THat is only an issue with standard single and two stage Heat pumps. Inverter driven systems work quite fine in those temps. Bosch, Diaken, Mitsubishi all have heat pumps that handle cold climates. I don't deal with Diaken, But we deal both Bosch and Mitsubishi, and they have models that work below freezing rarely needing supplemental strip heat.

[@7_of_9]

​@@CCCC-tq8yojust ordered the Tesla panels and two power Walls and getting a 30% rebate 👍. For gas and electric I will be paying less than $16 combined just to keep the account active.

[@davemiller8648]

I will keep my gas stove love cooking on it.

[@ckelly5141]

Hi Dave. I have had a 92% efficiency furnace for 14+ years with no repairs yet. Very good install. It is a Goodman. Around that time, 80% efficiency units were being snapped up because new laws were coming into place that made high efficiency furnaces mandatory. I live in Canada. They are doing the same thing now with high efficiency gas fired hot water tanks. The laws are getting more and more strict. PS I was told that to get a 97% (at the time) was so much more expensive for the unit that I would never get the difference back in fuel savings for the life of the unit.

[@bobshanery5152]

So ridiculous laws. They tried passing this rule out here but it went to court and lost. However.. It will be a law eventually because our government chips away at our freedoms bit by bit. If we talking environment 80-90%+ will make no difference. Biggest issue is quality, how long it lasts, how its made and so on but regardless you out in Canada could all be living in caves and it do nothing to the environment.. Same for us over here. We are not the main contributors. I would rather our governments be honest about why they pushing this but I guess saying its for bigger government, taxes, being paid by companies and more control over the population sounds a lot worse then just saying its to help the environment

[@rsage_]

Great video! I work in Murray, UT. Just got here this morning and I'm about ready to start work on my old Land Rover Defender engine rebuild and decided to start off the morning watching your video only to find out that I'm probably super close to you. If you're ever in the area, come check it out:)

[@danlah1303]

Big difference between 90+% that’s been around for 30+ years and the latest ultra high equipment with lots of fancy electronics and more things to break.

[@sprockkets]

You don't need to buy one with fancy electronics.

[@bobshanery5152]

@@sprockkets Give it a few years and it will be the only options given. Similar to how over engineered cars are getting. They are making things harder to fix, more breakable/needing constant service parts and more expensive parts. HVAC is going into what Apple does with its products.. Needing "licensed apple approved techs" to get parts and work on the dam thing. AC/Furnaces are not complicated and should not be complicated but you make more money making them complicated. Sucks how we have a few monopolies who own nearly everything. Free market is near dead because this would not happen if it was doing well.

[@sprockkets]

@bobshanery5152 no it won't. As in, you'll have 24v furnaces for the foreseeable future.

[@jackblah5842]

@@bobshanery5152 You conservatives crack me up. You b*tch and moan about govt. regulations taking away our freedoms and in the same breath you complain about monopolies and the lack of a true free market. You were probably leading the charge for how electric car windows were too complicated and unnecessary.

[@AmericanFarmerHVAC2024]

@@sprockkets Can't avoid it now. Mandated ECM motors and such even on your basic single stage models. The good old days are over.

[@Watchyn_Yarwood]

A suggestion, please. You mentioned a video about the dual fuel system. There are many of us who do not see ads or cards in videos. Therefore, we have no idea what video you are referring to when you point to something that is not visible. Can you PLEASE put links for videos in the your More section?

[@GrimmJaw496]

have had my thermo pride oil furnace for 20 years its 84% efficiency and runs like a top (tune it up every year) I think the main reason its lasted this long is the tiger-loop and the copper coated heat exchanger....paid $3000 for it in 2004.

[@HeavyInstinct]

I have an 80% efficiency Carrier unit that was installed new in 1995. I've never had it tuned up. Only needed one service call in that time where a fairly inexpensive part needed to be replaced. Don't even remember what it was. One other time I had a problem I was able to fix myself by simply cleaning the flame sensor. I just make sure to keep the filter clean. I did have it looked at once a couple of years ago and was told that heat exchanger is in good shape probably because my basement is very dry. Don't remember what I paid for it as it was part of the new home I had built that year. Considering I didn't do any research on it or pick it up myself like I would now I'd say I got pretty lucky on that one.

[@TheRealRenn]

We had a high eff propane heat furnace at our last house and the amount of condensation from the propane exhaust was crazy

[@johncraig2623]

It's not unburned fumes going out in an 80% furnace. It's heated air going out the chimney vent, instead of into the ducts.

[@AmericanFarmerHVAC2024]

What heated air? The exhaust?

[@johncraig2623]

​@AmericanFarmerHVAC2024 Yes the exhaust of the burned gas goes up the flu (water vapour & CO2 mostly, not unburned naturalgas) . A high-efficiency furnace's exhaust is quite cool because a higher percentage of the heat from the burning gas goes into the ducts, not the flu.

[@bhaveshbhut7940]

Hi Dave, I liked all your DYI procedures. What do you think about replacing just an HVAC furnace? Is it doable? FYI, I have AmericanStandard HVAC system and noticed few minor cracks.

[@bryantd7722]

I don't see any "Multi Stage" furnaces on HVAC Direct's website. No matter how expensive I go. What did you do differently? Is it because I'm looking at bundles and not individual components?

[@emmannuelthomas8060]

Would love to see electrical wiring between inverter converted, furnace and thermostat

[@dus10dnd]

I tell you... what led me to this video (though I've watched tons of your videos), the fuse on my furnace control board blew and so did the step down transformer. Since I couldn't get parts over the weekend, I was looking into the board to see about a simpler solution. The various control boards used in HVAC are ridiculously complicated and expensive for what they're doing. I am thinking I should start a company making replacement boards. There is reason that a furnace control board that controls a multi-stage burner and variable speed fan should retail for over $100. The electrical components to make it solid are less than $15... without even considering buying at scale (read: retail pricing). An Arduino, some relays... a PCB breakout... that is all it really takes. And the fewer components on the board mean higher reliability... more parts == less reliable.

[@scoobtoober2975]

You'll run into the problem that it is running a gas appliance and it needs to follow some dumb ass rules. It'll take a long time to get through that non-sense. Sorry. I totally agree with you. Rules and regulations that is. There has to be some aftermarket stuff out there. Like the pellet grill bolt on boards.

[@ZERO-F2G-]

Its called inflation, I just replaced a 50-A-50 on an old furnace, that board used to be 40$ back in the 90's, it is 130-140$ now. I have been doing HVAC for 36 years, cheap boards fail more often than the expensive ones. I have yet to have to replace a control board in a Bosch or Mitsubishi unit, they are very expensive and extremely complex boards, much more than 15$ in components. They probably have that much or more in protection circuitry, probably why they almost never fail.

[@dus10dnd]

@@ZERO-F2G- No. It isn’t inflation. I am in electronics. These boards are stupid. And they are cheap… they just charge us a lot of money for them. Everything else is electronics actually gets less expensive and more powerful. The HVAC industry is full of scams, from manufacturers to service companies. The $500 board I have is LITERALLY $15 in components.

[@isidromacias3670]

Your videos are freaking awesome! Do you have any plans on doing a video about different ways to do a ducted system with different zones? Can I use my existing equipment and divide up my ducts with louvers; will it lower the life span of my equipment?

[@CarreraTrackOntheFloor]

Does a two-stage 96% furnace with a longer run time burn more natural gas compared to a single stage furnace with shorter run times?

[@brothermine2292]

A variable-speed pump in a building's hot water subsystem increases its efficiency too, and also reduces the internal erosion of the hot water pipes. But I suppose that's a topic for a different youtube channel.

[@rubberman2006]

I had a Payne system installed 4 days ago. My furnace looks the same with those access doors.

[@raullemus7407]

Great Job, can you please let us know where did you take the drain line out side. problems that I'm having is that drain line freeze in the winter time when temperatures goes below 32 degrees thank you for your videos,

[@ChuckMayzak]

I added a diverter line to run to my toilet in freezing weather, not ideal but better than furnace shutting down due to pump being unable to drain!

[@chiefgeek2020]

I see you wearing a FilterBuy hat, I tried FilterBuy filters and furnace kept overheating; once i installed honeywell filters furnace runs fine.

[@scoobtoober2975]

were they the same merv rating. My ac would ice over with a higher merv number.

[@marcwerth1857]

I need to replace my high efficiency furnace but I’m not sure if I should go with the Goodman or the ACIQ. I like the idea of the easy on panels

[@enajenaj6841]

An inducer motor for a two stage furnace could be triple the cost of a single stage furnace & it probably will need to be replaced every seven years. I would try & find out the cost of the inducer motor before I bought a furnace.

[@wysiwyg654]

There seems to be little information out there about the effects of static pressure on furnaces caused by undersized ductwork and things that you can do to your existing ductwork to improve airflow. I'm in the process of upsizing my cold air drop but its been a lot of trial and error up to this point, hopefully it will help.

[@ZERO-F2G-]

Up size your filter if you can, also use a filter with a low initial pressure drop. Static pressure is a double edged sword, it is essential to proper distribution, but it needs to be within blower parameters and in proper distribution. Undersized ducts are often part of the issue, but more often its poorly designed and or installed ducting or a combo of all.

[@wysiwyg654]

@@ZERO-F2G- Thanks. I already have 16x25x4 merv8 sideload filter, to go any larger I'd have to reconfigure the furnace to be a bottom load. I live in a ranch with the furnace centered in the house. I have a TESP of 0.70, 0.45 of which is on the return side (furnace spec if 0.50). Cold air drop is 8x22 and fed on each side by 8x14 ducts. I am going to replace the cold air drop with a 10x25 and see what happens. According to the charts it allows for 50% more airflow.

[@Thejaweee]

@@wysiwyg654 A 10x25 return drop can support a higher volume of air but if all that is feeding it is 2 8x14 ducts you will still be restricted. Imagine a garden hose attached to your house feeding into a fireman's hose. If the garden hose is open full blast will it fill the fire hose to max capacity? Pick up a ductulator or find a duct sizing app online and set your friction rates at .05 for return side and .08 for supply side. They will get you a duct system that is much closer to appropriate for your system. There is a proper method for coming up with true friction rates, but these numbers will get you close enough. Next determine whether heating or cooling calls for greater air flow, you want to build for the side of the system that is looking for more air. Your furnace Product Data will tell you how much air needs to move for heating, for cooling look for 400 cfm per ton. Good luck!

[@kernsy6715]

What size is your furnace? I have a 2800 sq ft house with a 120,000 btu variable speed Goodman furnace, I am also thinking about upping my return to a 10x25 and also supply to a 10x24 on one side and 10x16 on other side of plenum with step downs farther down the supply trunk. What’s your thoughts?

[@wysiwyg654]

@@kernsy6715 My furnace is 80k single stage. I went ahead and installed the 10x25 drop and reduced the TESP from 0.70 to 0.59. Not as much as I was hoping for but better than before. I'd have to enlarge the rest of the cold air ducts to get any more improvement.

[@izetmujanovic9863]

I live in upstate NY ...I have ranch style house with 1200 sq ... I'm looking to buy this kind type of furnace wonder what size do I need with the gas furnace and AC unit ..as far as BTU for gas and AC unit thank you

[@juanito795]

i keep hearing that new rules take effect in 2025 for the refrigerant being used in systems is this true?

[@kimballwhite]

I knew you’d do it at some point Dave! 😉 Thx for the video!

[@diyhvacguy]

🤣🤣🤣

[@ewebbytrailscout]

thanks, great video. Would be great to see an ACIQ split ducted heat pump install comparing quality vs other mid tier units for coil construction. Your thoughts on epoxy coated coils?

[@davidaggies131]

So was this a free unit for you to do a review on? Could have sworn you just didna video a few months ago adivsing everyone why anything over 80 was not worth it...

[@rogerhodges7656]

I am a huge fan of you channel. I think that this title and the discussion points are a little misleading. You are not converting and 80% efficacy furnace to a 96%. You are replacing the 80% with a 96%.

[@markscannell865]

Considering my existing furnace appears to be a high efficiency furnace - based upon the PVC air intake/venting - my next furnace will likely be a high efficiency furnace.

[@garrymiller2769]

I had an 80 E furnace for 15 years and replaced the main circuit board twice (they're about $500 up here in Canada)

[@WmCRobison]

When I replaced my tank water heater with a tankless condensing water heater it kinda freaked me out to run exhaust through plastic pipes (PVC).

[@billylikessoda]

Can you tell me the part number you purchased. Looking online there are 2 units that are nearly identical, inhabitants throughout exact same setup

[@Gambitt1970]

How is ACIQ for the AC side? The prices are certainly good.

[@jimsveta4417]

We just got a variable speed heat pump installed with a single stage NG furnace. The HVAC guy now tells me I need a variable speed furnace. Hard to justify the huge cost. Is it now possible to wire y2 to heat speed and y1 to cool and low all the time. It is a carrier 58msa.

[@ZERO-F2G-]

No you cannot simply use the heat speed, a rewiring with a relay or two could be a work around, but considering that was a terrible furnace, to the point of class action lawsuits, I would replace it. They are notorious for heat exchanger issues cracking, clogging etc.

[@GOLFADDICT65]

Hi we are in need of replacing a 28 year old furnace for a 1996 Bi Level total sq ft 2500 we are seniors on a so called fixed income so payments would be prefered a furnace guy by us recommended a Weatherking 70,000 BTU single stage furnace what we need to know is are they reliable and a good brand ? what brand would you recommend and size we live in Vulcan Alberta Canada we also have already a 3-4 year old Air conditioner this is an investment for us so we want best bang for the buck so to speak but very reliable thank you so much and we look forward to your response cheers

[@billmiller5075]

Nice job

[@anon3009]

Are you able to use staybtite 8 on these AC IQ systems or are the tolerances not tight enough?

[@diyhvacguy]

On mine I was unable to, but you could also just buy a flare tool and just make a flare.

[@irmafacundo7107]

You are simply the greatest...thxs

[@FixthisCD]

You can go out the side with an 80% but you need to buy an expensive kit

[@AsForetold]

Why do all of the local HVAC companies tell me that you need to upgrade all of your ductwork in order to convert from an existing R-22 / Forced air Gas heater to the newer heat pump / 96% efficiency systems? It appears you left your existing duct work intact. Thanks,

[@diyhvacguy]

To make more money

[@AsForetold]

@@diyhvacguy Thanks!

[@ZERO-F2G-]

Most Air handlers do not well work at the same level of static pressure that a gas furnace does. If you were building a new house and you had me designing your duct system using ACCA Manual D I would be using .8 for a gas furnace and .6 for an Air handler when sizing the duct system. Duel fuel is a different situation as you are coupling a heat pump condenser with an evaporator coil and a gas furnace. We do alot of Bosch IDS systems, both new construction and replacement. A strait electric system H/P condenser with air handler will generally have a slightly larger duct system than the H/P condenser coupled with an evaporator coil and 96% furnace.

[@johnbarber1482]

What are your thoughts on "water furnace"?

[@blucy10]

Water Furnace is a manufacturer of geothermal heat pumps. My brother has that system in his new house. It does take up a lot of room, but you don’t need a water heater since it’s part of the system.

[@ZERO-F2G-]

Its one of the cheaper brands of geothermal. Enertech, Bosch and a few others are better options.

[@daddygc5814]

What is the differance between a 92 percent and a 96 percent furnace?

[@iwantmyname]

Er, ..um, .. 4%? Just a guess.

[@daddygc5814]

I knew someone was going to say that , their is a mechanical reason for it ,but what exactly

[@ZERO-F2G-]

@@daddygc5814 Most 92% furnaces are two stage, while not all but the majority of 95% up furnaces are two stage, that is the primary difference in most cases.

[@briandadey9958]

Another hack job. In pa no flex gas line solid steel pipe the entire way. So every manufacturer and code want gas shutoff valve close to furnace. Old location was correct

[@magicfireass8107]

No. Any savings you would get from a 95%+ are gone the first time the ecm blower motor fails. Stick with a 92%. Reliable. Simple.

[@AIlSystemsGo]

Can you explain it more

[@skyscraper37]

Standard is fine. You’ll never recoup that extra cost

[@TB-LivingFree]

ThumbUp &LeaveComment 4AIgosAll

[@snake10566]

A lot of us aren't buying high efficiency furnaces because of cost savings, we want to be more efficient and sustainable in our lives.

[@mrd2329]

I've been a following you for a while however watching some of your work. Some work is sketchy and on your new furnace here that you installed you don't realize that rubber coupler belongs on the exhaust pipe not the fresh air intake that's meant to relieve stress off fan exhaust elbow.. Just because you're a licensed contractor sure doesn't mean you're any good, if you don't read manufactures directions what good are you? It's all about the install with everything from concrete installation to HVAC installation to a window installation. If you have a poor installer it doesn't matter what you buy or install.! This isn't meant to be mean it's just that I run across contractors like this all the time you all think you're such pros but you don't follow manufacturers recommendations for installation.

[@spikefivefivefive]

When it came time to replace my furnace I didn't go with the high efficiency ones for a few reasons; 1) Additional cost - I don't have high heat demand even in the dead of winter so I wasn't looking for the savings that comes with HE that would have to be re-couped 2) I didn't like the idea of those ugly plastic pipes showing outside my house and having holes drilled in the side of my house. 3) More parts to break, more expensive to repair I did have to have my chimney lined, but I was OK with that. The 80% efficiency furnaces are much louder.

[@picklerix6162]

I have a variable speed 80% furnace and it is much quieter than my original furnace.