Green Living
sweetyjenj
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Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Energy-efficient furnace...please advise!
in Green Living
We need a new furnace, ours is 17yrs old, and we want to get the $1500 tax credit. We know we are getting one really soon, and we know we are getting one that is the 95% energy efficient, but we dont know if different companies charge less than Home Depot. We can get a new furnace, the best one available, with all kinds of installation goodies and new digital/programmable thermometer thing, and the new furnace will improve our air conditioning, for $4000 instead of the normal $6800 with the current deals and tax credit, but are there other companies that are even cheaper than that? Is this a good deal? Thanks!
Re: Energy-efficient furnace...please advise!
Call some local hvac companies to come out for an estimate. It shouldn't cost you anything for the estimate, and its the only way to accurately answer your question. Also, the price is going to depend a lot on the brand, model, and warranty you select. A good estimator will explain all these things to you and help you make the best decision for your house and needs.
For example, after talking to three hvac companies for an a/c replacement, we did not go with the 16 SEER unit as it was not cost efficient for our climate and our air handler. Also, we went with a 5-year warranty b/c we aren't staying in the house long. We did increase the efficiency quite a bit, but could not justify the extra expense ($4k after credit) to go up to the ones that meet the tax credit requirements. That's the type of info that your estimator should explain, and the concept is the same for furnace and a/c.
Generically: Most of the time you can get a much better deal from a local guy than Home Depot/Lowes. The big boxes contract with local guys and then take a cut. Sometimes you can get lucky and the guy the big box sends out really does know his stuff and is just not finding much work on his own. Sometimes you get guys who are working for the big box b/c they can't get work anywhere else. Its a crap shoot. I don't know about hvac work specifically, but this is true for kitchens, baths, and flooring.