New home owner in portland HELP! (sales, real estate, buying)

[ubh]

Hi,
I live in Portland Oregon where the cold weather is starting to hit us hard at home because our oil furnace is out.
We just bought our home back in July but we had not tried to work our oil furnace yet.

This weekend my wife and I tried to fire it up but can’t seem to get it to work.

The furnace is a bryant oil furnace, so I looked up local furnace repair place that specialized in bryant heating and cooling Temp A Cure to see about getting it repaired or replaced.
What they told me is that they couldn’t replace the item because oil furnaces are on their way out (strange beings everyone I talk to here in Portland seems has oil heating) and are costly to repair, and what I could do was upgrade to a different central heating.

Because we are new to the city I thought I would ask the locals about what they know and or prefer in heating begins we are planning to live here for quite a while.

Thanks.
D.

[Leanne Mears]

I am the Customer Service Representative for Temp-A-Cure.

We do not normally respond to our customers in this way and would an opportunity to discuss this with you. Please call our office at (503) 253-6192.

Thank you,

Leanne Mears
Customer Service Manager

[tiffela74]

sorry, we have a pellet stove for our heat....im clueless on the oil furnace stuff. do any of your new neighbors have one? or suggestions?
best of luck,
and i hope you get it figured quick, colds gonna be setting in before too much longer!

[nancy thereader]

What is a pellet stove? How do most Portlanders heat their homes ? Oil? I guess not solar (lol). Is there a long heating season?

[notangry]

I'm not in portland, I'm in Wisconsin (for now -- planning on a move to portland) but I use a pellet stove here. It's basically a heater/furnace that burns wood pellets -- pellets are made from the sawdust from sawmills or what have you).
Anyway, I'm not sure of the availability of pellet stoves or even pellets in the Portland area, but it's a great way to heat a house.

[tiffela74]

well, enough people that we had a shortage last winter and people were only allowed to buy one bag of pellets a week.....there are lots of fireplaces/woodstoves too. We had a w.stove when we lived in Mulino and loved that thing too! My mom has 2 fireplaces and what they do is close off whatever part of the house theyre not in, and use the fireplace, or a space heater.but thats just the two of them there then...My dad has a woodstove they use mostly, and then a forced air too.
i love our pellet stove btw, it does a terrific job of heating the place, fast! and the pellets are all made of wood products that are recycled. so...cool...lol

[PDXmom]

Very odd. Seems like one of my old neighbors in Portland put in a new oil furnance. I would try Jacobs. I don't know if they service Bryant but they might know.
Improve Heating Efficiency with Jacobs Heating and Air Conditioning

If they don't know ask your Real Estate Agent ... ours always knew people to help fix things etc.

We've still been running the ac here in NC. I'm so ready to be able to turn on the heat!!!

Good luck.

[David Kennedy]

Spend the money to have that heating system evaluated. Get a statement in writing if it is unserviceable. When you bought the house in good faith, you expected everything to be working and servicable.
If you did not buy the house with an 'AS IS' contract..and I'm sure that you didn't...phone your realtor and make them aware of the problem..(If the heating system is unserviceable)...give them the opportunity to correct their problem before you sue.
A new oil fired heating system will cost between $8,500 to $12,000. The higher estimate if new ductwork must be installed.
Many realtors in Portland are buying distressed properties and giving them a facelift...then a quick sales turn-a-round...
Heating systems are expensive and this one may have been overlooked or ignored.
It's their responsibility to make this good if the system was faulty when you bought the home...good luck.

[achtungpv]

Just curious, does no one up there have plain ole' electric or gas heat? Or is that prohibitively expensive with 4+ months of cold weather?

[oldtintype]

I've lived in three places in Portland--had Oil first, gas second and electric third .