mobilehomerepair.com

We have a 1978 ? Mobile home (not sure what brand) but it has a Wesco brand furnace. It's tucked in a pretty small "closet". For instance, the filter is 20"x 20" and it just fits through the closet door. It is working OK at present but our electric bill has been about $300 a month because of a cold spell. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do as far as installing a newer/better, more efficient unit to lower my heating cost ? TYVM! Butch

Sounds weird but electric furnaces are 100% efficient. All energy used to heat the elements and run the blower motor heats the home, nothing is lost up the flue like on a gas furnace. You could put a newer electric furnace in but it won't be anymore efficient than what you currently have. A old 17KW electric furnace uses as much power as a new 17KW electric furnace Changing over to gas will require a substantial cash investment whether you go natural gas, provided that is available to you, or propane. A lot of it also depends on fuel costs in your area. It is cheaper to heat with natural gas than electric in the area I live, even with 80% efficient gas furnaces. You have plenty to look into and consider where you live.

You could also look into an auxiliary heat source. I heat with a Pellet stove and very rarely even use the furnace.

Greg