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Sob! We need a new boiler for our furnace.


Hilltopmom
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Just got the estimate. $9,000

I’m going to cry.

Good thing I went back to work this year. So much for my salary going towards kid activities and college costs.

 

Dh is like “ see we shouldn’t have moved!â€

( our old house was heated with only a wood stove, nothing to go wrong there... just hundreds of hours of hard work per year to keep it )going

 

Such a bummer.

(But I love our new place in town anyways)

Edited by Hilltopmom
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It might just *be* $9000, but I'd 100% get 3 different quotes.

 

We overpaid dearly for windows at our last house because we didn't understand about getting a variety of quotes. Never again! Get the quotes to compare. You don't necessarily want the rock bottom quote, but you don't necessarily want the highest either.

 

Four quotes is even better for something that expensive.

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I’ll get another quote, but sadly in our rural area there aren’t many options and this is a company most of our neighborhood uses. My parents got a new one maybe 10 years ago now and it was around the same price.

 

We do have some backup electric thermal storage units in the main living area to use for now. And a gas fireplace too.

 

I’d like to do payment plan if we can, or it’s gonna have to go on the credit card. Or it would wipe out all of my emergency savings account.

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I don't understand heating systems and never even heard of a house having a boiler, but....could you replace it with a different type of heating system that's less expensive?

 

Yesterday, I was looking through one of those things you see online--how to save money on electric bills, or something like that. They mentioned using space heaters for only the area where the family is, and that now they are a lot more economical than they used to be. It'd certainly be worth looking into.

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I’ll get another quote, but sadly in our rural area there aren’t many options and this is a company most of our neighborhood uses. My parents got a new one maybe 10 years ago now and it was around the same price.

 

We do have some backup electric thermal storage units in the main living area to use for now. And a gas fireplace too.

 

I’d like to do payment plan if we can, or it’s gonna have to go on the credit card. Or it would wipe out all of my emergency savings account.

 

 

I don't understand heating systems and never even heard of a house having a boiler, but....could you replace it with a different type of h

eating system that's less expensive?

 

 

This--can you replace the entire thing with something different?  

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The boiler is the inside part of the furnace that heats the water that is then circulated through the radiators.

I have no idea about other types of heat we could use. It’s a big house. Natural gas (which is what our furnace uses) is pretty efficient and cheaper than heating oil or electric that used to be used around here.

No duct work to switch to forced hot air.

 

I’ll have dh research some more for sure.

 

It’s a big house near Canada so it gets cold up here.

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The boiler is the inside part of the furnace that heats the water that is then circulated through the radiators.

I have no idea about other types of heat we could use. It’s a big house. Natural gas (which is what our furnace uses) is pretty efficient and cheaper than heating oil or electric that used to be used around here.

No duct work to switch to forced hot air.

 

I’ll have dh research some more for sure.

 

It’s a big house near Canada so it gets cold up here.

That makes sense. I was picturing the boiler room at my elementary school and was pretty sure you didn't have that.

 

I'd definitely get another quote. $9000 seems like a whole lot for part of the furnace system.

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We also have a natural gas boiler that heats water and sends the hot water through the pipes in the house...it is also an integrated system that heats the hot water for the house for bathing etc.  We've lived here for 15 years and the system was brand spanking new when we moved in.  I dread the day we have to replace it..but it hasn't given us a moment of worry in the last 15 years.  But I do have my eye on the hot water tank. Those things don't last forever.

 

I am so sorry. I would probably try to get a home improvement bank loan or something like that that can be paid off monthly with a low interest rate...and while I was at it I would have our roof evaluated just to see if was going to need to be replaced in the next 5 years.  Why pay 9,000 when you can pay 20,000 all at once, right?

 

Again, I am so sorry. The idea of getting a 9000$ estimate makes my stomach hurt.

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The boiler is the inside part of the furnace that heats the water that is then circulated through the radiators.

I have no idea about other types of heat we could use. It’s a big house. Natural gas (which is what our furnace uses) is pretty efficient and cheaper than heating oil or electric that used to be used around here.

No duct work to switch to forced hot air.

 

I’ll have dh research some more for sure.

 

It’s a big house near Canada so it gets cold up here.

 

A boiler system heats water and circulates it through tubing to baseboard fin-tubes, cast iron radiators or through piping under the floor.  A furnace heats forced air and there is ductwork built in to the house for the air to circulate through the house; there are registers in the rooms for the warm air to come into the house and cold air returns for the air to circulate back to the furnace.  A house with a boiler does not have ductwork.  You can't switch systems unless you're tearing out the pipes and adding ductwork.  Dh said that would probably be $17,000 to do.

 

If it's a high efficiency boiler that piped right, with the proper controls, pumps or zone valves, the cost would be right at around $9000.  It's a lot more involved than replacing a furnace, and takes a few days versus one day.

 

(We own a heating company.)

 

You might check into getting a charge card from a small local bank to pay for the boiler.  We have one here that ends up costing less than a loan.  Just a brainstorming thought.  :)

Edited by Tina
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Update- so the 9,000 is to replace the entire thing. To just replace the cracked piece $4000.

 

Better but I’m tempted to do the whole she bang to last longer

 

I would be too.  We have fixed things that were half the cost of the item and it didn't seem worth it.  Then a few years later we just had to replace the whole thing anyhow.   If you spend 4k now in 5 years (random number) would you have to spend the 9k anyhow? 

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Our old boiler (similar type system) started going wrong and we replaced a part.  That seemed to set off a cascade of problems.  I was told that parts can become brittle with age, so moving one can damage others - I don't know how true that is.

 

Check that you are getting something that is high efficiency - boiler design has come on recently.  Our new one (UK) is similar to this:

 

https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/products/boilers/directory/greenstar-cdi-highflow

 

I think it took about a day to install the boiler and to check the system - the system itself didn't need much changing - it was still in good shape.

Edited by Laura Corin
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