Furnace/blower is insanely loud... electric quieter?

See that's the thing, the HVAC guy we're working with owes us a $2k credit for another thing so we're stuck with him. Good guy but doesn't seem to understand this very well. He's like "yeah, electric is quieter but most of the sound is the air moving through the vents, you'll still need vents."

And I'm sorry, that just doesn't seem to be true. I open the closet door and this thing is loud AF. And the door is slotted so it's basically blocking zero sound. It's slotted for fire code reasons.

He did verify that fire code wouldn't prevent us from putting massive layers of insulation and mass on the door if it was electric. He just seemed skeptical that that would make a difference.

Sadly moving the unit to a more sensible place is cost prohibitive because of where the ducts run.

Try a mini split maybe?

Buy more tube gear!! Use it extensively in December / January!!! Problem solved.

PS - electric heating sucks compared to natural gas / propane.

Might be cheaper than a furnace too!!!!  Last time I checked, our dual unit system - two, on on the N side of the house, and one on the S side - was getting old and it's about $40k to replace.   

I think a new unit will likely be quieter either way you go.  The gas version is probably going to save you money overall (mine is gas too but up in the attic).  One thing you might look at is that some of the newer units have multi-speed motors (as an option).  Of course that will probably cost more too, but my understanding is that while it is mostly for efficiency, you might find that if it runs slightly longer at a lower speed, it's also quieter overall?  btw, you can still get a free quote from just about any HVAC person out there... might be worthwhile to get second/third opinion or other ideas?  even if you go with your guy that owes you credit...

Well it's pretty old. But the bigger problem is its location. It's in a closet that is like 3 feet away from the sitting area. And the closet, as mentioned, has a slotted door for ventilation. So with electric that door could be replaced with a solid door.

Envision trying to have a conversation with someone with a furnace fan blowing full title a few feet away. It's also the fan for the AC unit so 9 months out of the year we're SOL but maybe there can be peace in the winter?

for $12K that sounds like the entire HVAC system (I got some quotes earlier this year as one of mine is 25 years old now - the original for the house).  One thing to note is that at the end of this year they transition from selling units with R410a (they banned production of R22 aka Freon, after 2020) to another new refrigerant (mostly R454B in the US).  As I understand that has all new installation requirements because it is actually flammable... which also means that the prices are guaranteed to go up (to cover all the extra training for the HVAC install/service folks and because did I mention it is flammable?).  Although to be fair, it's been conveniently re-classified as "mildly flammable".  I know I can't wait (but I will wait because I honestly don't want to replace a working system if I don't have to so I'm going to wait until it takes it's last breath...).  The 25 y/o unit I have still uses R22 and last I saw a gallon of that (which is either reclaimed or old stock now) is over $250.  So once it leaks, it's pretty expensive to try to fill it again.

For the heat I have an expensive silent solution radiant in the floor, but you still need the air handler to chill, & in TX that’s a bigger deal.

Now for what might seam like a stupid but easy solution, since with the gas furnace the closet acts like the return & the venting intake at the door is where your drawing in air could you and ask your contractor put the venting on the other side wall then put in a nice solid core door?

not sure if you have been watching the electric rates lately.  As most of Texas is "unregulated", my bills have been way up in the past couple years (while the providers all make up for the problems they had when Texas froze over).  I had a contract that expired in 2022 I think.  The next time, with the best contract we could find, my electric bills more than doubled.  Luckily that was for only a year and then we found better rates, but they still kinda suck and we're paying way more for electric than pre-freeze -- which is my long way of saying I am glad I have gas heat.  But that is also part of the problem with the contract pricing -- since we use a lot less electricity when it is cold (although even today it's not really "cold", but at least the AC is not on), the contracts all want to put you in a range that never works out for us over the winter months (we end up paying higher - basically get penalized for not using as much).