Disappointed, I asked him if he could at least recommend someone who does
work in Minneapolis and he gave me a couple of names. Using the same
description as above, their "ball park" quotes came in at $14,000 and
$15,000. When I asked why their prices were so much higher I was told that
it was the cost of doing business in Minneapolis. My personal opinion is
that when you limit the number of businesses that provide a service, the
remaining ones can pretty much charge whatever they want. Needless to say,
I am still using my original furnace.
This is a story I've heard over and over again. We are pretty much forced to buy our natural gas, electricity, and telecommunications from barely regulated city sanctioned monopolies. Over the years I and many other citizens have called for tighter regulation of these monopolies or at least some competition. To date no city administration in memory has been willing to give us choices beyond the monopolies formerly known as the Minneapolis Gas Company, Northern States Power, and US West. I've been told privately that this unwillingness to bring these monopolies under control is because these utilities have our elected city officials "in their pocket"
Of these scantly regulated monopolies the gas company takes the biggest chuck of our hard earned dollars. Want the most efficent and longest lasting water heater available? It's on sale now at Menard's for about $450. But despite being made by Bosch and carrying all the usual agency approvals there's no way you can get one legally installed in Minneapolis. Why? Because neither the gas company or the small club of contractors licensed to work in Minneapolis carries the Bosch line. So if you want a gas water heater in Minneapolis you're stuck with one that will use twice as much energy and need replacing again in a decade or so.
Need a new furnace or other heating device? Don't even think of calling the gas company- they'll be happy to condemn your old one and shut it down in the middle of winter. This is there little way of forcing you to buy one of there new ones at grossly inflated prices. What if you have an old house like mine that never had central heat, and is so small that it doesn't need more than maybe twp heaters? The gas company and their buddies will be happy to jam a furnace in your closet and run ducts all over the place for $20,000 or more. About now those $2,000 gas "fireplaces" look tempting... A friend of mine went that route. The $2,000 model was the price leader, she had to "upgrade" to the $3,000 gas "fireplace". With installation the estimated cost was $7,000, and after all the cost overruns that cute little gas fireplace cost $9,000.
This explains why I'm still relying on a gas space heater made by a company that went out of business in the 1960s, and a water heater from the 1980s. Meanwhile, Fleet Farm has a nifty corn/wood pellet burning heater on sale about every other week for $1100. With an electric auger feeding in the fuel these renerwable fueled furnaces can run for a day or more on a bag of corn. Going up into the $4,000 range there are wood fired boilers available that will provide heat and hot water for the biggest home, the garage, and probably the neighbors too. These boilers are housed in a neat little metal shed and can sit out by the back fence where you're insurance company won't worry about them. And unlike the huge ducting the gas company's forced air furnaces requires, the hot water heat these wood fired boilers generate can easily be piped throughout any home.
If you're bored some day and want some laughs, stop by the Permit Desk and see if they'll let you pull a permit for any heating device that doesn't consume the gas company's or the electric company's product. God forbid the city let citizens switch to renewables and deprive the city treasury of franchise fees and the politicians of campaign donations!
I already pay twice as much for car insurance and substantially more for
water/sewer service than my suburban counterparts . My property taxes have
almost doubled in the last few years and will double again in the coming few
years. I am a single parent, (currently working only one job) and fighting
just to keep my head above water.
I and my Minneapolis dwelling coworkers in Postal Service transportation have stacks of awards for years of safe driving of big trucks in Minneapolis... yet all our insurance company looks at is our zip code. As for taxes, we're just beginning the "death spiral" as the city tries to fund legacy liabilities with a shrinking tax base.
I just can't get ahead in Minneapolis. I have been struggling for 10 years
and I give up! When my youngest graduates from high school next year my
house will go up for sale and I will be out of here. I have lived in
Minneapolis for 32 years and I can't afford it anymore!
Agreed- that $15,000 for a new furnace would buy a decent travel trailer. And for way less than $100,000 I could have a new factory built cottage instilled on one of my lots. But Nooo... Minneapolis has fantasies that we're going to buy $200,000+ townhouses in one of their crime ridden neighborhoods!
hanging on in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
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