Keeping the old furnace in shape

[PJPellet]

Hi,
I was wondering what other pellet stove users do to keep their old oil, propane, or natural gas forced air furnaces in shape. I have a ten year old York high efficiency furnace that I do not plan on using at all now that I have the pellet stove. But we all know Murphy's Law so I have no doubt sometime the pellet stove will break down, need a part, etc. so I will need the furnace for back up. Do you run it once a week, month, etc? I really have no clue and imagine if it just sits there that can't be good for it in a damp old cellar. So wondering what y'all do to keep your no longer used furnaces up to par just in case. Thanks.

 

[hossthehermit]

I fire mine up in the fall for an hour or so.

 

[Fish On]

my furnace is 10 years old but i still use it on weekends when we snowmobile. don't forget that pellet stoves are space heaters! lol even though i heat my whole home with it.

 

[DexterDay]

I fire mine up in the fall for an hour or so.

Yep... Same here and then again near spring. It may be necessary to run it for days, in case of an emergency, so knowing it works. Gives one piece of mind.

I hate to use it, even a little bit, but it must be done. Its not that old. Trane XV90 Forced Air (Propane, ugh!)..

 

[TboneMan]

My pellet stove can't quite do the job during the coldest periods of the winter. I have the pellet stove t-state right next to the furnace t-stat. I have them set to work in tandem when the pellet stove can't keep up or it has been shut down (during working hours) to recover the temps in the house.

 

[Bkins]

I don't run my pellet stoves at night and will turn both the stoves and the furnace on first thing in the AM. The furnace only runs for 20 minutes to half a hour at most and only on really cold days. We like our house cold at night. I get 3.5 years on 1 fill-up of the oil tank which is 275 gallons. Works for us.

 

[PJPellet]

Great, thank you for all of the replies.