Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - central air conditioning

Is it true that if your heating furnace is more than 10 years old and you want to install central air in your home, you need to replace the furnace with a newer model in order to install central air?

Hello Carmine52 and Welcome to the Heating and Cooling Appliance forum and our Do-It-Yourself Web Site.

For all intensive purposes, the direct answer to your question is YES. The reasons vary but like everything else, gas appliances and especially forced air heaters, are changing yearly.

Due in part to energy efficency standards, competition between manufacturers, smaller sized parts, electronics, even the physical sizes of the units are changing almost yearly.

Which all means in part, that the physical size of the heating unit you currently have, after 10 years, is already outdated but not yet obsolete.

Furnaces built recently, do not even come with 10 year warranties on the firebox {heat Exchanger} any longer. Seems like everything built these days is truely built with "Planned Obsolescence" in mind.

The heating and air conditioning professionals, replying within this forum, will be more able to offer you their views ,as seen from the retail sales, service and installion prospectives. Check back here several times.

And there you have it...."My Entire Two Cents Worth"....:D

Suggestions:
Read the manufacturers online web site for product information, problem solving methods, part locations, disassembly, reassembly methods, repair proceedures and instructions, pictorials and schematics, which may be available online.

Check the ARCHIVES, within this forum, for other postings on this topic and the replies offered.

Regards & Good Luck
Gas Appliances Forum Moderator
Tom_Bart...........Fast, Fair, Friendly & Highly Efficient.....:)
Energy Conservation Consultant & Natural Gas Appliance Problem Diagnostics Technician.

Although I have spent many years in the gas appliance industry, some appliance diagnostic information provided is exclusively from memory....Devoid of any "Pre-Senior Moments" of course........:D

Tom B. gave you some sound advice and you should give it some thought. The a/c industry has changed radically in the past 10-15 years and by todays standards, your furnace is on the downhill slide. However, this is not to say that you couldn't reasonably get another 5 maybe even 10 more years out of it. If push came to shove and you needed the a/c for the cheapest price, then yes you could install an a/c unit, tied in with the furnace. In my opinion it would be a jury rigged system that down the road would probably give you some problems. With todays efficiency standards that are in place with all new a/c units, blower capacity and duct sizing must be contended with if you want to get the most out of the unit. It makes no sense to pay top dollar for a top dollar a/c unit and try and match it with a half-dollar heater. Spend your money wisely and get 3-4 estimates from licenced contractors and let them look over what you have and what each thinks is best for you. Remember, the cheapest ain't always the better! You don't have to have the highest efficient unit to be very satisfied, but you are going to be better off down the road by replacing your furnace. Another factor is, how long are you going to be living in your house. If you're in for the long haul, then spend the bucks and get it done right the first time for a trouble free system. Good luck.