Well, just how much snow do you get there in zone 4? It seems to me that your proposal of sowing the seed on the bare dirt and then putting the bottle over it (technically called a cloche) would only work if you have no snow on the ground. One of the nice things about winter sowing is that we can sow seeds in the middle of a blizzard. It sounds like for your idea to work you would have to wait till spring to sow, when your snow has melted. If you do that, anything that needs cold to germinate will fail. Or you could plant in late fall, before snow starts to fly, which could result in your seeds frying if you have an autumn heat wave. Plus, winter sown seedlings (honest, honest, believe me!) seldom, I might even dare to say never, suffer transplant shock. And if you sow them in paper pots or toilet paper rolls, you can plant the whole thing in the ground without disturbing the roots at all. One thing I do to avoid the problem of drying out and inconsistent watering, is I set the winter sown containers in plastic trays with holes drilled about an inch up the sides for drainage, so they get bottom water when I don't have enough time to water them every day. Hope this advice helps!

>> Hope to hear an update from the original poster of the thread soon as well. Hi, still here. :) Yeah, so far, none of the contractors have proposed a 'mismatched' coil and condenser. One said 5/5, but all the others have been 4/4 so far. No load calcs yet. One contractor said he'd do it if there were a commitment to go with them. So if they commit to dropping their price and changing some of the equip to match better proposals from others, then we may have something.. :) [unfortunately, although they had a polished sales presentation, their bid missed a couple elements with regard to equipment, including the low voltage wiring and the mismatched coil size (width)] I did see that the 4-ton XL15i requires the 7/8" x 3/8", so looks like I'm good. (phew) A contractor on Friday also said I'd need additional wiring to hook up a heat pump outside, so looks like it was missed by the one proposal. I think this has been asked before, but is the TL900 the same as the VisionPRO IAQ? I have two more contractors coming Monday, so after that will hopefully have all the information I need to start discussing it further with 1 or 2 and start negotiating equipment and price details. On related topics: There have been other differences in proposals, with some suggesting/including a replacement condenser pad, some not. I currently have what looks like an interlocking plastic condenser pad. Doesn't appear damaged, although may be slightly out-of-level (will be checking to make sure). Surrounded by bushes that I keep in check, and mulched w/ weeding done when needed. I understand concrete is the best option, but doubt the pads being included in some of the bids are much better than what I have. I'll be doing my own check to confirm what I have would fit the new condenser/heat pump. And, some are including an Electrical Disconnect/Fuse rewiring, some not. There's currently a disconnect (no fuse) connected to a 40amp double pole circuit breaker. One guy told me "that should be enough, but if it isn't and it trips a lot, we'll fix it free of charge" or something to the effect; which I'm not sure whether it's a good deal that he's not trying to sell me something I don't need or a caution flag that he doesn't know if it's sufficient.. The XL15i documentation says "Min Cir Ampacity = 30" and "Max Fuse Size (Amps) = 50", so I'm not sure whether that means the 40amp circuit breaker is sufficient or not.

I met with the head of the HVAC company (which by the way does have a good reputation..not some fly by night company..if that matters) yesterday and expressed my concerns. He reassured me that what they were installing would make us happy. Of course it will!! : ) I did mention that when they did the analysis, they didn't consider the likely 2" spray foam, and he agreed that they would need to rerun the data. SIDENOTE: I just got the spray foam cost and now I am thinking I won't be able to do it anyway. So 5 ton may be what I get anyway. I asked about 2 stage and he suggested against it for my situation. Still not sure about the zoning or not. I'm tempted to NOT do it, since the HVAC owner assured me that I'd be happy. He mentioned if not, within the first year, they will come out and make it right. So I was thinking IF I'm not satisfied, within the warranty, I would ask them to come out and make it right. Maybe at that point, it would show that zoning or 2 units WAS indeed necessary. As opposed to doing it upfront. But then I think I may need it anyway b/c my wood fireplace will heat up the 1st floor enough, and the 2nd floor will likely always be cooler. A second zone/thermostat will resolve that. I don't know... This post was edited by lithnights on Wed, Jun 12, 13 at 14:24

This system is set up to work with a constant air flow. If you are bringing in outside air it will need to be filtered as well as the inside air. In other words If you require a certain fresh air intake in your house, which is usually only required in large commercial buildings, than you would need to run your fan continuously in you hvac system to continually circulate the air in your house. Now if you are getting this heat recovery system to save energy in the winter than you would only need to operate the system when the furnace is on. Then the problem would be what happens when you need ventilation in your bathroom during the summer? You would be pulling hot air into you system and running you whole house hvac fan. In other words a HRS is not practical for use in you house just put standard vents in your bathrooms to pull out the moisture and install a hepa air filter to clean your air when you choose. Besides most residential companies do not install systems like this unless they charge a large amount to do it.