OH!! this is the perfect answer! I too start my seed on top of my big old monitor. I love the berry containers for starting my seed - fill almost full with Pro Mix tamp down, place seed, water well and let drain well out the little slots. I snap the lids shut on the tag (you can also write on the lids - but I reuse them)and I can place 5 containers at a time up there. covered with a tea towel I measured 100 degrees with my candy therm. seed will sprout within a week, and when they touch the lids I pop them open. I needed bottom heat for my seedlings - I live in a Very cool house - read that as drafty. so I dragged out my old electric blanket - laid down a plastic shower curtain folded the blanket on it and pulled the other half of the shower curtain over the top. had it plugged in all day and could not get any warmth... maybe that is why I still had it in the closet! LOL BUT THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!! ohhhh Re do! I yanked out the string of white light rope I had. within 5 minutes I had heat! how perfect is this?!?! - lights within a plastic tube! I strung it back n forth like the heat tube on a pro bench and placed my trays on top. Using the candy therm ... I had about 85 degrees! tomorrow I am going to the cheap stores ... in search of ! some more white rope lite! thanks for a wonderful web site! best growing! Kim

Can you give an example of a "well known, mid-priced dept store"? Do you mean Pennies or Sears? Except for sales, price will affect the quality of the fabrics. I do a lot of clothes shopping online. I've found that I had to learn which stores met all my requirements: acceptable price, acceptable quality, consistant fit, style. I did quite a bit of return shipping in the beginning and that hurts! But it taught me which places just don't work for me. Some places simply do not use the generally accepted sizes. Victoria's Secret for example, generally runs large, J Crew runs small. It's really the same for brick and mortar stores - you find which stores carry what you like and want. Unfortunately too many cater to teenagers. I think that is extremely short-sighted, given the larger Baby Boomer group who are now middle-aged. In the end, I settled for higher prices to get quality and fit over bargain prices. Lately, I've been trying to use some newly opened brick and mortar versions of the same online stores (like J Jill or Talbots) to save on shipping costs. I notice that these stores have *less* selection than their online versions. The only time I notice sizes lacking for online clothes is if I wait too long to order. Catalog stores definitely carry a lot less inventory than they used to. Some, like Soft Surroundings, seem to have everything on back order. I wonder if they wait until there are enough orders for something before they have it made?! Since I buy higher priced materials, I can't buy as much so I make sure I get classic separates that can work together. Better fabrics last longer too. I do still shop locally for bargains. Some shops not inside malls will offer lower prices to get customers. See if there is a Cato store near you. The clothing styles are rather youthful but they have nice accessories and the prices a great. In addition, check out consignment stores. I found a local second hand clothing store where a lot of well to do women drop off their used clothing. I've gotten some real bargains there of good name brands. In the end, you have to determine your personal clothing priorities. If lower cost is first on your list, you will probably have to compromise on other issues. I have a friend who is on a budget, but still manages to always be amazingly put together in a seemingly endless variety of outfits, from shoes to ear rings to lipstick color! She does no online shopping but spends most of her free time bargain hunting; haunting TJ Maxx, Marshalls and sales, sales, sales. For myself, I have better things to do than spend all my free time in stores. ;) I don't know about marketing strategies, but I often wonder about retailers in particular. I've been in so many stores with racks too full of clothes, poorly lighted dressing rooms, dressing room hooks full of rejected clothing (even piled on the floor), no clerks, clerks who were slooooowww or rude, etc., etc. And I do understand hating malls. It's like shopping at the zoo sometimes. ;) No wonder people prefer to shop online.

BTW many flooring materials can be heated, including engineered hardwood (according to some of the manufacturers). Decide what material you want on the floor and do some research - chances are whatever you choose can be had in a variety that is capable of being heated. The Nuheat thermostats I have used in my home have a switch on them to limit the output for wood / other flooring. With stone/ceramics etc. you can heat them up quite high - 90+ degrees - but you don't want to go that high with wood etc. In terms of how long it takes to feel the heat, what you want is a programmable thermostat. You tell it what temp you want the floor at what time and it will get it there for you. Don't turn it on and off manually - you'll always forget and it will become a nuisance rather than the luxury it is. I use my heated floors in the two bathrooms as the primary heat source and it works great in Toronto, with a 2nd floor bathroom with 2 exterior walls in a drafty 90 year old home.

Placing the PEX for radiant heating is relatively easy. What's not so easy is determining if this is a waste of money for you. It was for us. 1.)We live in the South, where the cooling season is longer than the heating season. Very little chance of payback unless you operate the system for longer periods. The smart boilers needed to accurately control a system in a temperate climate are pretty spendy and complicated and not very DIYable. 2.)We have wide temperature swings, sometimes daily, which magnifies the slowness of the "thermal mass pendulum." We see this just with our heated bathroom floors (separate system). It's going to be 42° tonight, so turning on the heated floors will feel good. You have to think about that a couple of hours in advance, because it takes that long to warm up. By the time they're warm, they're too warm for most of the timeframe except for that brief period that was 42°. The next day when the swing is back up to 60° and the floors are still 80°, the bathroom is too hot and needs a window opened for comfort. 3.) We insulated the new addition so well that a plain 110 volt 1500 w spaceheater can keep it 60° in the winter, and a 2 ton AC in the summer. If we'd put the money we spent on PEX towards additional insulation (we just used 2x6 construction with "standard" type insulation instead of the new high tech products) then the simple addition of the forced air furnace would have been more than sufficient for truly comfortable heating in the winter. For many people who have a long heating season and awkward spaces that forced air isn't comfortable for, radiant heating can work "miracles". For people in warmer climates, or in climates with great daily temperature fluctuations, a radiant system is very often not the best choice for either comfort or the pocketbook. Do your research well, and don't get caught up in the hype thinking it's a "must have". It isn't. And, it's sometimes even a drawback to comfort. We've never fired up the radiant in the addition. We've never needed to, even in 0° weather. And the bathrooms do work wonderfully well (imagine 6 cats lying on their backs in bliss!) but are also inefficient monetarily and for true comfort when confronted with wide temperature swings in a day. They are great when the temps say in the 40's and below for extended periods of time, but that't not how our winters here operate. It's 40 for a couple of days, then back up to 55°, then down to the high 20's, then 70° (must be Christmas day!) and then you have a 50° drop into the teens and on down to 0°. Radiant isn't very efficient or comfortable with weather like that.