Your heating system won’t last forever. You do want it to last as long as possible, though, right? Well, within reason. If it’s costing you an arm and a leg in repairs and extra-high bills from running inefficiently, you would be better off replacing your old furnace in Montville, NJ. How can you tell whether it’s worth repairing your old furnace or if it’s time for a replacement? We recommend the 5000 rule. Here are the details.
The Many Factors to Weigh
When you know your furnace is getting old, or isn’t in great shape anymore, you should weigh a variety of pieces of information to help you determine whether it’s worth continuing to invest in heating repairs. What should you be considering?
- Age: How old is your furnace? You shouldn’t expect an electric furnace to last more than twenty years. A gas furnace is unlikely to make it more than fifteen.
- Condition: Have you been diligent about your furnace’s annual maintenance? If so, it will stay in good condition for much longer, and be far more likely to make it to those age estimates still working well. If not, the furnace might last many fewer years.
- Efficiency: At some point, even yearly maintenance won’t be able to keep a heating system as efficient as it was when the system was new. At this point, you’ll start to see your utility bills creeping upward, and it will only get worse.
- Effectiveness: Similar to efficiency, at some point, an old furnace will be less effective, and no matter what maintenance or repairs you get, your home won’t be as evenly warm as you’d like.
- Repair Cost: How expensive is the repair your system currently needs? It might be worth getting a minor repair on an older system, knowing it’s only likely to help it get through another year. And it might be worth it to spend quite a bit on a newer system, knowing you might get many more toasty winters from it.
- Repair Frequency: Even small repairs can end up costing a lot if they’re needed very often. A furnace that already needs to be fixed every winter is likely to need repairs more and more frequently as it gets older.
The 5000 Rule
To keep all these factors in mind at once is quite a challenge. Here’s a way to simplify it! Take the amount (in dollars) that you expect the currently required repair to cost. Multiply that by the age of your furnace (in years). A result under 5000 indicates that the repair is worthwhile. A result over 5000 means you’d probably be better off considering replacing the system.
And what if the result is exactly 5000, or quite close? That’s when to take other things into consideration. An excellent maintenance record, infrequent repair needs, and good efficiency and effectiveness would tip the scale toward repair, but spotty maintenance, frequent repair needs, and questionable efficiency or effectiveness would make a new system the better choice.
Contact MarGo Plumbing Heating Cooling Inc. today to schedule an appointment or ask any questions about your heating system!