No doubt you will save money but $500 will take a long time. Just now I think we are paying about 35 cents a cubic meter which means you will have to save around 1500 cubic meters over what ever time period to make up the cost. Gas will doubtless go up in time too which will shorten that pay-back period a bit more.
A better investment but a more expensive one would be to change the furnace out for a closed combustion one and if you have a gas hot water tank to change that too so you get rid of the chimney. There you save both the standing pilots and the constant heat loss up the flu. A new furnace though will cost rather more than 500 bucks. An open flu though is like having a hole in the roof the size of the draft opening where the furnace and/or the water tank vent into the chimney and it is drawing warmed house air out constantly. When the furnace is operating it too is burning already heated home air for combustion. Along with the added efficiency, most run these days in excess of 90% you might reduce your consumption by as much as half if you can block up the chimney. Half is probably at the top end of optimism but it will be substantial. So much depends on how much you pay for gas now. 500 bucks though sounds a little steep but I haven't hired a furnace man recently, fifteen or sixteen years now, might be very reasonable. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: David Ferrin To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2007 2:24 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] retro fitting a furnace I'm told that it is possible to convert my furnace from a thermocouple system to an electronic ignition starting system. Now having said that what I am looking for is opinions on if it is worth around $500 to have it done. Advantages of not having a pilot light should be obvious, but will it save enough money to make the investment pay off over time? David Ferrin [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
