Well, we've been putting it off a while, but we're finally getting the new furnace today. All in all, we're looking at a $6000 hit. Our current furnace is 32 years old and we still have to use space heaters in several areas of our home. We have to get one duct replaced, some blower motors installed to more evenly disperse the heat in the colder areas of the home, an air cleaner, new thermostat, etc. I really hope that our energy bills goes down as we're going w/a high efficiency unit vs. our old one which would be about 65% efficient. Has anyone else put in a new furnace and saw a reduction in energy usage?

The good thing is that my niece married the son of a man who owns a major heating & cooling business in our area, and he works there. So my new nephew's dad came & spent 2 hours checking the furnace, following the ducts - even into the attic - to figure out what we needed. And we got a price break! At least I know we should never have to replace it again!

Ouch...'tis the season...good luck! Sometimes there are actually tax breaks for buying high effecient items like that...worth a check!

Well, we had the Florida equivalent this summer with a new a/c. Our was only seven years old, too, but far too small for our home. Ours was a slightly bigger hit than yours, too.

We checked into the tax breaks, too, but ours did not qualify. If we had bought one that had, it would not have been cost effective given the tax break.

But, we have seen lower bills. I hope you do, too. If nothing else, you will be more comfortable - and safer. I don't trust space heaters.

We had to replace our heat pump a few years ago. It went out in the sweltering summertime and we had no air conditioning! We got a more powerful unit. We did see some reduction in our electric bill (we're all electric), but that may have been due to the old one surging.

Our furance is old, really old, and according to my brother (who installs furances) when we finally decide (which means afford) to switch them out we will see a cut in our bill. Till then we need to keep this old guy nursing along!

Congrats on the new furance and I'm sorry about the cost.

We're getting it done now to take advantage of the $150 tax credit that ends on 12/31. Woo hoo. A whopping $150. $500 of this bill is fun though - we are getting our fireplace converted to gas. We never use our fireplace as it doesn't draw properly & we get smoke billowing into the house. So we have this beautiful fireplace that is either unused or we put candles in it when we entertain. So, we picked out some logs (well, my niece's husband picked it out -assured us it was the nicest one for our home) and they are converting the fireplace to gas. So we'll get to have a fire over Xmas! So that was an "extra" but we will definately use it now.

My parents have gas logs and they love them. You'll be glad that you spent the money.