Tempstar high efficiency furnaces - http://www.hvacmechanic.com/ Forums
Original message
| mlmv
 |  "Tempstar high efficiency furnaces"
, posted Fri 9 May 08:11  
Does anyone have a Tempstar high efficiency furnace? If so, are you happy with it, or, are you not? We just had one installed and find that it is way too slow in heating our home.
Also, it uses much more fuel than our older Grimsby oil furnace.
When we turn it down, ie., overnight or when we are out, it takes a very long time to heat us up. As an example, in February, while we were away, we turned our furnace down to 51F and it took over 5 hours to reach 70 F. Our older Grimsby took less than one hour. Any advice or comments would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
mlmv
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Replies:
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| mechacc
| "Re(1):Tempstar high efficiency furnaces" , posted Fri 9 May 23:05
Is this is a high efficiency furnace? If so read the instructions. Most manufacturers recommend not setting back below 55. Doing so will allow the flue gases to condense in the last pass of the primary heat exchanger. This section is not designed to condense and within a matter of a few years it will rust and rot through.
Not enough information. The original furnace may have been oversized for the heat loss. If the outdoor temperature is at design temperature for your area and the furnace was sized for the actual heat loss it may take a long time to recover from 51 to 70. For example your original furnace had a heat ouput of 140,000 btus per hour and the heat loss at -5 degree outdoor temperature is 75,000 btus per hour it would bring the house up to temperature faster than a newer furnace with a heat output of 80,000 btus per hour which is sized closer to the actual heat loss. The older furnace was almost twice the heat output than what is actually required. Another point to consider with an oversized furnace is that it will heat the air fast while objects, chairs, tables, walls etc. have cooled to 51 degrees. In short the new furnace may be operating at capacity.
MechAcc
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| | mlmv
| "Re(2):Tempstar high efficiency furnaces" , posted Sat 10 May 10:42
Yes, our new furnace is a 2 stage, high efficiency furnace. We will, in future, keep our lowest temps at 55 F. when we go out. Sounds like your hint makes sense, though.
We were not told about rust and rot problems caused when we lower our temps, however, we were told not to put the thermostat at less than 50 F.
Perhaps you are right, maybe our old furnace was quite oversized. What I also know is that we are too old to wait over 5 hours to have our heat come up to 70 F. Plus, when our original furnace went onthe fritz, we thought we were going to save oodles of money, plus help the environment.
I guess time will tell.
mlmv
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| theduke03
| "Re(1):Tempstar high efficiency furnaces" , posted Fri 9 May 17:55
As yuri asked before, Is that furnace 2 stage? If so, it or stat could be set up wrong. I don't know about your outdoor air thing but could be that too. Whatever the problem is I can tell you that it's not because the furnace is a Tempstar. Your furnace will deliver as much heat as any other furnace of the same capacity. I do believe that Tempstar sucks.
"My dad was the most feared furnace fighter in Northern Indiana."
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| | mlmv
| "Re(2):Tempstar high efficiency furnaces" , posted Sat 10 May 10:36
Thank you for the replies.
Yes, our new Tempstar is a 2 stage.
The heat exchange unit's (the other new piece of equipment) fan runs 24 hours a day, whereas, our old one was intermittent. Does this not require mega amounts of electricity? In addition to quite expensive fuel costs for our new furnace, our electricity bills are also through the roof.
Look forward to replies.
Thank you.
Lorna.
mlmv
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| | yuri
| "Re(3):Tempstar high efficiency furnaces" , posted Sat 10 May 19:34:
"Heat exchange unit" ?? Post the name and model of it. I suspect you have a HRV or ERV. Heat recovery ventilator. They usually don't run all day unless they are set up for that purpose. Could be part of your problem. Better yet, take a digital pic of it, post it at photobucket, left click the IMG code and post the link here so we can see it.
Yuri
[this message was edited by yuri on Sat 10 May 19:36] |
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