Tanya called our furnace repair man and made an appointment for him to come early this past week and inspect and estimate. He laughed and wondered why we hadn't waited until there was snow on the ground. Apparently it isn't just Canadians who do that. Anyhow, he showed up and said maybe $300 or $400 for repairs and no guarantees. The furnace was 8 years old anyhow and 10 years is sort of their limit. We opted for a new furnace. Installed about $1000.
In some counties, the (qualified and certified) furnace man would get any required permits, install the furnace and it would be inspected. End of story. A bit more complicated here. As long as we replace the furnace with the same make and (more or less) model, no one cares. If we want to change ANYTHING, like make or size or type of furnace, the (post-)Soviet gas bureaucracy kicks in.
We have to go to P'yatikhatki (county seat) with all documents and start the process. They will send someone to take measurements and draw up a blueprint which must be approved by others. Official looking stamps must be applied at all levels. Once this is done, our furnace man (who is qualified and certified) can install the furnace which will then be inspected. Cost is about $100 but time is anywhere up to 6 weeks.
We opted for simple. Our furnace man went to Krivii Rih on Friday and installed our new Artiston on Saturday. Our flexible metal stove pipe from the furnace to the chimney wasn't code so another man showed up, took the measurements and will make us a non-flexible set of stove pipes. Once that is installed, the rep from the furnace shop in Krivii Rih will inspect and fire up our new furnace to make sure all is well and then our guarantee will kick in.
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| New furnace sans stove pipe to chimney |
Our chimney isn't exactly code either, being the part extending several meters above the brickwork is simply heavy metal stove pipe wrapped in insulation and duct-taped. I would dearly love to put up a Selkirk chimney if they are available here in Ukraine. Tanya was looking on the internet and said they are expensive. Canadian price in Ukraine, no doubt.
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| Taken Dec 2009 showing the chimney extension and the insulation. Works but... |
There is a joke about someone from a certain country close by you who ordered a new furnace and was told it could be delivered on the first Monday in December three years out. The customer asked if could be moved to Tuesday. Why, asked the furnace company rep. The response: "The plumber is coming on Monday to fix our sink."
ReplyDeleteSoviet times. Only three years? it was as long as six for a car.
ReplyDeleteThink of it this way, BF. Order the furnace now, and maybe it will be working by time the snow flies. Perhaps later.
ReplyDeleteI never cease to be amazed by your logic, and timing.
Looks like you will soon be in hot water again.
ReplyDeleteThat is your house? And it can be heated with a furnace that looks like that? Tiny and all?
ReplyDeleteWhen you say "heat" do you mean "short of freezing" or actual HEAT.
Blows my mind.
We keep the house at about 20 C (68F) in winter and the bedrooms cooler. With new registers which we will install in a couple of key rooms next month we will have no trouble keeping it warmer if we want. We have an electric fireplace downstairs and a couple of electric space heaters for upstairs if we need them if the weather gets cold as in -25C. We use them on occasion. The A/C in my office also pumps heat but only to outside -7C, so it is used only in late fall and early spring. Ukraine has cheap electricity and expensive gas so we tend to use electric where possible.
ReplyDeleteCheap electricity. Unheard of. I'm hoping it doesn't decide to start snowing in Florida. I am SO looking forward to just being cold, but without having wet, snow packed boots to dry out.
ReplyDeleteWell from what you're written at least the service people are pretty good. Here everybody is a specialist so it would take three people to do an install. One for the furnace, one for the piping, and one for the chimney.
ReplyDeleteI guess there really are different beliefs they follow in every place. But in real life, I think it wouldn’t be wise to wait for the snow before you did repairs on your furnace. That may cram up your schedule and the repair guy’s. And urgency might cause some inefficiency with the installment. Your furnace unit is so compact, by the way. Cute. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mechteld. Buying a new one is indeed a great move, since it frees you from further costly repairs on the road. By the way, do not forget to examine the fiberglass filters once every month, especially during the cold season. ; )
ReplyDeleteDarryl Iorio
I second Darryl. It was definitely a good thing that you purchased a new one. The new one will certainly come a long way, and you wouldn’t have to bother with repairs. How is the new furnace faring now? Doing maintenance will surely increase its service life.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa Flynn
You made the right decision to buy a new furnace instead of repairing that old one with no guarantee of getting it totally fixed. It can save you a lot of money in the long run than having to pay for costly repairs every now and then.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a great piece of work and information collected altogether and shared here about furnace installations here just for us, thank you for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThe winter time can bring brutal weather. Especially in your part of the country. That wonderful that you got a new furnace. I bet your house is all warm and toasty now.
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