JohnnieB- if you were to opt for a heat pump, provided your existing heating system's compatible, you don't need to replace it. The heat pump does the heating, extracting up to three times the heat for the energy expended if it were electric heat alone. from the outdoors. The existing heat, now the supplementary, kicks in when the outside air can't provide enough heat to make it worthwhile, as I understand it, that's somewhere below freezing. I fervently wish I had the money to put in a hybrid system now, my gas bill is quite large and our temps have been consistently close to freezing where I live- I suspect I'd be saving money, and there are subsidies available too in some places. I can probably keep my Bryant Plus-80 gas furnace, which is mid-efficiency, and see how much it gets used before I decide to replace it, or I might get a package deal with a high-efficiency furnace, and sell the old furnace or give it away. Mr Hvac, I've heard of this 'cooler heat' business before, by that I guess you mean rather than the air coming out of the vents as warm as it does with fossil fuels, it's a few degrees cooler, however, in the end, the room temp ends up the same. If the fan runs longer whilst doing this, it will likely end up with better heat distribution throughout the house. JohnnieB, I'm just suggesting you look ahead some - I don't know what the price difference is, but you will likely start saving money on your energy costs. As I understand it, electricity costs are rising a lot slower than fossil fuel costs, all it takes is some new international conflict, hiccup or burp and the price is up again. Electricity doesn't fluctuate like that, also, we have far, far more options for producing electricity than we have for replacing fossil fuels for essential use like vehicles etc. If there's another big 'oil shock' the first thing I'd think was restricted would be heating fuels. That's just my thoughts on it.

It's a wood frame structure, built about 1970-71. Wood floors, ducting and return is all from below. Two layers of wood siding on outside walls. There are 4 windows in the big room, 2 on each side; mid size room (12x15) has 1 window; smallest room has 3 windows and lots of sun exposure on West side. Whole thing was reinsulated above and below and in walls in 2005 - w/batts. Each room has ceiling fans. Unit is on one end of building and rooms are in a straight line, so total run length of main SA is about 40-50 feet. The funny is that the 4th room (16x20) has 7 windows, 14ft ceiling and is currently NOT sealed by any stretch of imagination and it stays cooler than anything else. I've always argued that the ducting was grossly undersized, but the installer/HVAC company kept disagreeing...saying the unit was too small due to the one room with the vaulted ceiling. Another installer/company said it was on the low end of acceptable for a 3T unit - now it's running a 5T unit.

Fun2BeHere, the difference might be that somewhere between you and most of the people shipping to you, something's changed. In some major postal centers, they've switched from hand sorting to automated sorted for everything. Or vice versa. Or they've put in a new automated machine that is rougher with the packages than the old one. I have a friend who works for the Post Office. He started out behind the counter and now is management. He says that yes, at some points Priority Mail is hand sorted, but it is also run through the machines at various places. Most mail these days goes to a central hub. I can send a letter to someone in my town, but unless I go to the Post Office and put it in the mail slot specifically for my in my Zip code, it will travel 75 miles to the central hub Post Office for the southern half of my state. Pretty much every single piece of mail that comes to me goes through that hub, no matter where it originates. When my sister lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, all her mail was funneled through Chicago. So my best guess is that at some place along the line, your mail is going through a hub where something is causing the damage, if so many things from different places are getting broken. What that is, I have no idea. I'd make a formal complaint to the Post Office, and encourage your shippers to do the same. They are struggling for business these days and they should know why people aren't using them anymore.

I got the water bottle, tape measure and nice welcome note......love my little welcome gift! If anyone wants to donate their Houzz slippers that don't fit, to me, just shoot me an email. :0) Yes, I wear North Face, have a Wolf stove top, a Dyson and various things with brand names on them.....go figure....I think Houzz had very tasteful little gifts for us!