No More "Burns Wood or Coal"

Well, the time finally came — to get a new furnace.

This was not your run-of-the-mill home improvement. The furnace in our house was original to it (b. 1886). The house was literally raised around it, with the bottom part of the furnace actually sunk into a pit of firebrick in the basement floor.



And really, it was not half bad. The pilot light did tend to go out, especially in the shoulder seasons of fall and spring, resulting in a little manueveur to relight that entailed turning the knob and stepping on it, reaching in, lighting, holding, etc. But it was gravity heat, and there is not much to go wrong with the idea of hot air rising. No moving parts, no filters, etc.

But it was time, it really had to go. It was no longer efficient, or really all that safe. It took a team a full day to remove the asbestos wrapped ducts:



and then we had to fill in the hole in the basement floor:



and then a full week to replace it and put in the new ducts and such.



The new furnace simply doesn't have the aplomb that the old one did. But I am sure it is better, once I get used to it.