May want to read this for safety: http://www.mclaughlin-air.com/lennoxpressrelease1.htm When is the last time you had the furnace inspected? The Lennox Pulse furnaces were some pretty efficient furnaces from what I've read. For replacement there are some nice modulating furnaces out there from Rheem and York. Other than that there is always the Carrier Infinity.

The average resting heart rate for an adult is between 60 and 100 beats per minute, while well-conditioned athletes can achieve between 40 and 60 beats per minute. The maximum pulse rate is 220 minus your age, and the target for a healthy pulse rate during, or just after, exercise, is 60-80 per cent of this. Therefore, if you are aged 50, you should aim to build up fitness gradually until you reach a target pulse rate during exercise of between 102-136 bpm (beats per minute). If you are aged 55, your target should be between 99-132 bpm, age 60 = 96-128 bpm, age 65 = 93-124bpm, age 70 = 90-120 bpm, and age 75 = 87-116 bpm. When I used to go to Curves, there was a chart on the wall that said what your target pulse rate should be during exercise. Mine would rarely go up over 80 which was where a 80 or 90 years olds should have been. I'm only in my 40's and still have a very slow pulse.

Thanks guys, it was really fun and your encouragement was tremendously appreciated! I talked to my friend today, and he said that Aunt Jean was taken to the hospital at 6 this morning because she was having trouble breathing... they have her on steroids and antibiotics and are trying to prevent pneumonia... I better fly through the border tonight so it's ready tomorrow! There's going to be smoke coming from my sewing machine :o) I'm going to visit her tomorrow with my friend who is her nephew (they are keeping her overnight), but I don't really want to take this to the hospital because I don't want it to transmit germs or get lost, and I really want it to be a "just because" thing and not a "get well" thing, but I'm scared something might happen to her if I wait too long and she'll never get it...

I boiled some eggs this morning and at the end of the designated boiling time (at a setting of 5.5), I turned down the hob into the lower settings. I had to choose a setting that was high enough to cause bubble formation because at the lowest settings the induced heat just conducted away. Settings between 3 and 4 would cause effects that could be easily observed. It was evident that the power to the hob was modulating at a roughly 1-Hz rate. Hence my experience is not the same as Gary's and it is possible that my E'lux clone has a different circuit than his. There are no noises associated with this modulation, and it occurs (for the particular pot and water level) at an energy input too low for bubbles to even detach from the pot bottom and potentially make noise at the surface. I don't consider this a defect; but rather a design choice that likely results from some trade-off that wouldn't be apparent to someone who doesn't design induction cooktops for a living. Perhaps switching at a higher frequency would induce additional circuit heating. In any case, induction ready pots and pans have thicker bases with longer thermal time constants, so this effect may not be apparent with their use. Sometime I'll try a handy Emeril pan and see what happens. kas