Brr...

Sometimes things happen when you least expect it, and sometimes things happen when you have your fingers crossed that they won't.

On Tuesday morning we awoke to a chillier than usual house - not cold but not exactly beach weather either (although some people in my family would tell you it's always beach weather - this is not true). We realized our vents were blowing air, but not warm air - just air.

Enter our furnace that is older than I am - an AirCo 8300 Turbo. We knew when we purchased the Hobo-Chic that this furnace wasn't going to last for the long-term but we have been endeavouring to keep it running as long as we can, because let's face it - new furnaces aren't exactly cheap & honestly they don't make things like they used to.

We called up the local heating guys (there is about 6 companies in our town). 3 came to see the unit, only 1 was willing to even consider fixing it - 1 wanted to sell us a new unit, 1 couldn't get the parts. Not very good odds. 

What we learnt:
1. Our furnace is older than us.

2. Our furnace is wired in series, therefore if one thing didn't work, nothing would.

3. The vent fan was toast (we think).

After thinking about it for a while and being frustrated, I called up my intrepid Dad who usually offers sage advice especially in the area of mechanical frustration  and generally has a good hold of common sense. His sage advice was to look the guys in the eye and tell them we can't afford a new furnace and to fix it.

So the places we can go from here:
(1) Buy a new furnace - have one quote for approx $5,000

(2) Buy a new part & put it in- approx $441 (and on the hook for the part even if it doesn't work)
(3) Buy the similar unit off Kijiji for about $100 with ALL the parts and pay labour rate/try it out

Right now we're leaning towards #3 which requires a city trip but is the most economical option. 

So what "surprise" have you had lately that you had to fix?