Well well, look what came back to life! I have one chimney pot that was at my favorite local nursery. It was huge! Since I got it BH (before hosta), it is sitting off in a corner, but now will come in handy like Gesila says, to raise the viewing area. IF I can manage to get it on the dolly to its preferred location. I have two tall square clay flower pots turned upside down, and hosta in containers sitting on top of those. Even empty, those pots are heavy to move. Another source for old chimney pots would be an architectural salvage yard. They have everything. My wrought iron security door (removed and given away) is about to come home and might be used for climbing vines. It could be placed against a solid plain (bare) wall, and fixed to look like a gate in the wall where there is none. Gesila, how tall is your chain link fence? can you plant vines on it? Down here (and in Tuscany where I saw it first) I am putting star jasmine, evergreen in our zone, and it is already beginning to cover our 7 foot high chain link fence. It will be gorgeous once it fills in.

What you are describing is called the rule of thumb for HVAC sizing. It is the wrong way to do it and results in systems that are over sized. It is a form of guessing in my opinion. This is the way HVAC contractors who are lazy and can't be bothered to spend the time to calculate the requirements of your house. Over sized systems cost more to install, are inefficient, noisy, uncomfortable, and die prematurely. The only positive is they are more profitable for the HVAC contractor. I would not install a humidifier unless I really needed it. Are you currently having low humidity problems? Low humidity is usually a sign of leaking windows and doors. The steam humidifiers are supposed to be the best.

I think my vent is 4", I have a Bryant Plus-80 furnace, and I just replaced my hw heater, (I'm in BC Canada so YMMV) - the flue hat for the hw heater is sized for the vent that's there, I hadn't thought of that aspect - if I replace my furnace with a HE one - since I just shelled out on the new hw I wouldn't want to change it just yet (but I guess I would run the plumbing for a he hw heater when I do the furnace- Both furnace and hw heater Y into a single vent of course, if it was hw only, would there be a reducer that runs off the flue hat? I could certainly see a difference if it was only one appliance using the vent, but I've never seen any condensation coming back down....I wonder if OP's issue might also be some negative pressure....which could be dangerous. jmnoelle13, can you try a test for us? Get a stubby candle like a tealight, and place it right next to the flue hat on top of your hw heater, when the heater's at work, and see if the flame of the candle is drawn towards the flue hat? If it is, all is well in terms of airflow, if not, your system or parts of the ventilation system in your house is drawing combustion products back down the vent, which is very dangerous. Your new furnace should have two side vents, one for exhaust, one for combustion air. You probably didn't have direct combustion air feed before, so you should be better off in that regard. As for reducing the vent size, can you drop a sleeve down inside the vent from above?

Jake thanks for the reply. Yes I want the tanks to store the hot water from the desuperheater, but this only works in the hot summer months. You don't get much hot water in the winter months which is 70% of the time. The reason I don't want to use electric because gas is much cheaper to run. I was thinking it may be cheaper in the long run to just buy a powervent gas WH than to do electric. I thought about the combination, as you suggested, with electric to store and tankless to provide the extra heat. My concerns is it is already plumbed for a recirc system and I wasn't sure how that would work with a tankless.