>> Tdegen, Im curious through your readings if they addressed on tankless water heater installs, where the incoming water is extremely cold even in the warmer months, how that effects performance. I know it was a problem in the early tankless days, wondering if it still is. Thanks! Everything that I read indicated that the gpm (gallons per minute) decreased proportionally with how much you wanted to raise the temperature of the water. Assuming that most water coming into the house is around 50 degrees and you want a hot shower (about 105 degrees), you want to raise the temp about 55 degrees. This would give you a flow rate of 5.5 gpm. On the other hand, if you have really cold intake water and you want *really* hot water - and want to raise the temperature by 80 degrees, your gpm would drop to 2.2. Every tank is different, the more you pay for the tank, the less gpm is affected. All tankless heaters are rated in this fashion and you should be able to get the exact figures of the model you are looking at buying. The best thing that you can do for yourself is to try to figure out how many gallons per minute you would like to use on average and how important it is for you to be at a certain temperature with a certain water pressure. That is, I like my showers hot, and I like the water pressure high. So all of my calculations will be based on my shower. If my washing machine takes a little longer to fill up, I don't really care. For things like radiant floor heating or maybe a jacuzzi... that's something out of my purview. On a side note: unless you want to be cleaning the heater every month, you will probably want to buy slightly larger heater than what you need. No matter how clean your water is, you'll still get some calcium build-up on the heating elements. This will lower your gpm slightly. I'd suggest buying about 10% over what you expect to use.

"For the question at hand, the total # hours dedicated to each function i.e. filtering, cleaning etc should be figured and compared with a proper sized pump for the application, not the Intelliflo vs 3HP whisperflo. More along the lines of the Intelliflo vs 1.5HP pump, or 2 sp etc." I was responding specifically to this statement "it will explain where and why the intelliflo is efficient at low speeds but very inefficient at high speeds." It's doesn't lose efficiency compared to a regular single speed pump at high speeds, it comes close to, or beats a single speed whisperflo in efficiencies. I dare you to find me a 2speed 3hp (true 3hp), or a pump that will work at 4 different speeds using the right amount of energy to get the job done, no more no less. In the real world I have yet to see one of these pumps move less water moving more energy. "More along the lines of the Intelliflo vs 1.5HP pump" Still less power, at least in my testing. I have yet to deal with anyone who has put one of these pumps through its paces and pass a negative judgment on it. "So in a real world application, you may actually find the opposite power usage as you state above. " Where are you getting this from? I can sell any pump I want, and I am not married to Pentair, nor is Repairguy. We are real pool professionals that are in the upper echelon of our trade, yet people still don't believe what we have to say. I never believe brochures, and I am fortunate enough to be able to take the time to do field testing of products, and everything I have experienced has refuted most of the naysayers claims. This pump is great, and other than extremely high flow low head applications, I have yet to deal with any other product that is as dynamic and well built, as this pump. In a high flow low head application( ponds waterfalls), you lose self priming ability, but can create greater efficiency, but no pool pumps currently being marketed can do this, you have to go elsewhere, but those products are not UL listed for swimming pool applications so its pretty much a moot point.

Carob trees drop leaves and pods year round. Yuck. Messy. Up here in Sunnyvale I never noticed a smell, just got tired of cleaning up the mess.

Mayflowers, the only reason I'm not going with the half wall between the sink and the toilet is because I feel my guest bath isn't long enough. Plus to do that would mean making the depth of the shower narrower (and my SIL is a big man, LOL). This way it will visually keep it opened up and will also allow me to put in the 36" wide shower. I'm also thinking that by tiling the room (old fashioned 3' x 6" black and white tile) up to the top of the half wall, it will wind up creating a cohesiveness with the sink and toilet as almost a separate entity from the shower. For yourself, I really think that either solution will work very well. Just make sure you plan it all out in advance. On top of the half wall you can use tile, or use whatever you're planning on using for your countertops and/or shower curb. And you can even carve out a shelf on the toilet side to hold a book or extra TP or??? There really is no wrong answer.