Thank you for considering Signature. I work for the company and we'd be thrilled to have you visit us and see how we build our cabinetry and show you all the ways our products are green. We'd be happy to show you through our facility where you can see how we build our cabinetry and we can also spend time in the display area and answer any questions you might have... and yes our shelves are plywood! Just give us a call and we'd be happy to accomodate you anyway we can! 717-738-4884 You can also check out a special 'invitation only' website www.signaturecab.com/considersignature

Here is what I think is going to play out best for you if you are going to be in the house long enough and will heat primarily with wood. Keep in mind that I am an amateur with absolutely no experience in duct systems. I decommissioned mine at the first opportunity and installed mini splits. I'll gladly accept all criticism from anyone that actually knows something. Berto, you've already said that you are going to have ducted AC, (I'd look at mini-split heat pumps, but that is me and I don't have the time to split wood.) It ought to be pretty simple to make a dual furnace system with a wood furnace first in series with the (second) propane or electric furnace. Your thermostat turns on the AHU blower (for me, ideally, a variable speed blower with a proportional thermostat). If the wood boiler is supplying sufficient heat the secondary furnace does not run. If the duct temp between the furnaces falls below a set temp (which might slide depending on outdoor temperature) the secondary furnace fires up. If the day comes that you tire of cutting and splitting wood, you pull out the cheap furnace and put in a mod con furnace. It is no biggie to toss that first furnace because it was inexpensive to start with. The duct system has to be designed to support both heat sources and cooling. The furnace that you choose will have to be just good enough to run a cooling system well which might be more costly than the least expensive that you might use for (back up) heating alone. Keep in mind that a (complicated) super efficient furnace or boiler is not going to be a good investment in a well-insulated and sealed house that is primarily heated with wood. The ROI time will look like infinity.

There are new ducts in the 700sf addition, but the existing HVAC unit was over-sized for the original old house, so the installer said I don't need to replace it. There are replacement ducts for the old kitchen (will be a den), dining room and two upstairs bedrooms where I moved walls. Most of the supply ducts are on the interior walls, but the two old air returns in the floor are under windows. Everything in my renovation/addition is permitted by the city and inspections have all passed. They also inspect the "old" part as it isn't grandfathered in when doing a renovation of this size. I've replaced any electrical and plumbing that weren't up to today's code. The furnace is located in the basement that has brick walls and a concrete floor, but there is also 21 foot section that is chest high that is open to the dirt floor crawlspace. 6 mil plastic is being added to cover the dirt. R-15 insulation was added since I wrote this and it seems to be helping. All window sashes have been replaced with new energy-efficient wood sashes (had to be custom made to fit the old window openings). Thanks!

m-mm..it's not the air, but the amount of light. outside even without sun the light levels are much higher then indoors in the southern window. light=food for plants :). there is detailed info on the subject, if you search. but roughly in southern window there is half as much light as in the shade outdoors. you can find a light measuring app for mobile and then check yourself. as far as opening the window: a lot of plants prefer a temperature drop at night 7-10F. indoors the temps usually do not drop that far, UNLESS you open the window! but..some plants do not like cold drafts... though hippies are very tolerant of chill, I leave mine out until it starts dropping below 40F at nite and they are all in small 6-7" pots too.