Hey everyone, our furnace went out last night. It is currently 53° inside. I’m boiling water to see if it helps. Now my question is does anyone live in Wisconsin and know of any rebates, discounts, tax breaks etc. we could recieve? We are quite tight on money currently. Thanks for any info!
Had a coworker go through this. If nothing else, look for emergency loans for just this sort of thing. He was in Minnesota for what it’s worth. There are very low rate loans offered for situations like this.
Also, talk to your home insurance provider first. You may get assistance or not, but it’s worth a shot.
Things like this (obviously the Minnesota version.)
http://www.mnhousing.gov/sites/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1358904992980&d=Touch&pagename=External%2FPage%2FEXTStandardLayout
From my time long ago in upstate NY, make a warm room and set up the family in there. Put in an electric space heater in a safe spot.
As for the rest of the house, as Skipper noted, check with your home owners insurance and state sponsored emergency loans. Another option may be your power company for discounts.
Not fun. Take a look at this. http://homeenergyplus.wi.gov/category.asp?linkcatid=239
Worst case, you can get a credit union loan. The interest rate will be a lot lower than a credit card. We did this a couple of years ago to replace a furnace.
Don’t be afraid to get a less efficient cheaper unit (Trane, etc.) You don’t need to do an apples-to-apples replacement if your old unit was a nicer expensive one.
Watch the water pipes - may want to turn the water off near pipes close to the outside (if it gets colder).
I’m so sorry, losing a furnace in winter is awful.
Look at your city and county if your state sucks too badly to help in that kind of situation. You’re not the first or last person to deal with such things; society is here to help you.
Good luck!
Neighbors might be able to help if you do not have enough blankets, or a portable heater etc.
Thanks for the suggestions! I appreciate it. Any outlook from previous experiences is great! This is our first home (bought in January 2017) just breaking in the homeowner shoes lol. So far it’s gone up to 61° with boiling water and turning winter fan on low to keep the heat from rising. It’s 32° outside now don’t really have any outside water pipes everything is pretty centralized thankfully. Once again thanks for any insight!
I think the heating company will typically replace the furnace and put you on a payment plan. Have you talked to them?
If you are going to try to rough it get the space heaters. Also, as Geewhiz says, be careful about the pipes. It’s not the outside pipes as much as the ones coming into the house.
You might try buying some plastic cover to insulate the windows.
Keep the water running from the taps, either so it’s dripping or the water stream is no thicker than a pencil, and that should help the pipes to not freeze and burst. You’ll have a higher water bill but I understand that burst pipes are more expensive to fix Good luck!
Well, bad news called around to several HVAC companies. Credit isn’t good enough to get a 3,500 loan. Unfortunately, it looks as if we will have to let it sit until I am able to save enough. Thankfully though we have somewhere to stay in the meantime. I’ve got the basement laundry sink, second floor and first floor bathroom taps dripping water from the hot and cold lines.
As far as assistance I do not qualify. Barely. By about 500 over income limit.
You didn’t get a home warranty?
We have home insurance. Not so sure about the warranty. How would I go about figuring that out?
It would be with the paperwork from when you bought the place.
I’m going through the paperwork now. Thank you!
It expired 11 months ago.
Was afraid of that, but worth a try.
Most definitely. Yeah, live and learn I suppose.
Ok, so first things first… What kind of furnace? If it’s oil, is the problem that the furnace broke, or that it’s out of fuel?