This is not technical, but opinions after living with radiant floors for several years: One thing to remember is that we must adapt to a difference in how we think about heating. With F/A, wood, radiators, etc. we have a tendency to look at the outside thermometer registering cold, and then turn up the inside thermostat. Or maybe we walk by a window and feel cold seeping in -- and turn up the thermostat to compensate. That's often habit, but the habit is based on the fact that most houses are/were poorly insulated and often let cold or drafts into the living area -- so if it's cold outside our subconscious says oooh, it's gonna get cold in here, turn up the heat. You almost have to live with radiant flooring to really realize that one just doesn't need to play with the thermostat. If your house is well-insulated (and to an amazing extent even if it's not well-insulated) you set the thermostat for the temperature at which you are comfortable, regardless of what's going outside and you leave it there. And another thing which is rarely addressed is the fact that many (most?) people set the radiant flooring to 75 and are on the warm side of comfortable regardless of whether or not it's frigid outside. No matter what your source of heat, it takes less energy [and less $] for 75 than for 80°. Yes, if the cat stands in an open door peering out at a snowstorm there will be frigid draft coming in... no matter whether you have F/A or radiant. The difference is that F/A will have to warm up that cold air with more not-very-warm air and meanwhile you have both cold and F/A warm air blowing around you. Brrrr. With radiant, you have --and keep-- warm feet which physiologically makes you feel warm because the temperature of the floor has not changed. Yes, the open door's cold air is mixing with the warm air but it isn't blowing onto you to make you feel cold. Talking about vacations -- or a length of time away from home -- should take into consideration that radiant flooring does not make any ultra-high demands on its system. Radiant is meant to *maintain* an even temperature, not jerk it up with a blast of heat like other heating methods. So it makes sense to turn off a furnace while you aren't home because a furnace requires a blast of heat to warm the volume of air; long blasts for lots of warmth and short blasts when there isn't much difference between ambiant and desired air temps. Unless you are going to be gone for lots longer than it takes to cool-off followed by heating-up the radiant flooring, it does not make sense to change its temperature. Modern houses with radiant flooring are almost always considerably better insulated than their F/A counterparts, and it takes days not hours to cool off. And last, there are often comments about the length of time it takes to "warm up the house" with radiant heat. Especially if one lives in an area with a great variety of temperatures. Ah, excuse me, but if I'm comfortable at 75° what difference does it make what the temperature is outside??? If the house is highly insulated and draft-free it makes very little difference whether it's 10° or 50° outside. In my area outside temperatures with daily 40-degree variations are common for weeks at a time, regardless of season. Okay, not so common in the summer, but we don't need heated houses in August. On the rare occasion that it gets umcomfortably warm inside, I open the window. Low-tech but effective. Oh yeah, in July and August I turn on the A/C, not so low-tech, but effective. The point is, 75 is 75 is 75 and if your feet are happy at 75 it doesn't matter what temperature the outside air is. A 'warm house' is a side-effect of radiant because its main purpose is keep you comfortable, that is, maintaining your comfort with an even temperature.

I am reading all these posts with interest as I have now received my first electric bill for a FULL month with my new system. I put in a Carrier standard blower 13 SEER 2 1/2 ton heat pump/AC system with Puron. It replaced a 20-year-old Trane heat pump/AC. It is certainly not an awful electric bill but I was hoping to see a little bit of savings: Oct 07 with 31 days, I used 612 KwH, and avg. temp was 71. In Oct. 06, also 31 days, I used 703 kwh but the average temperature was much cooler: 64. Since I probably used some heat a year ago and I have been using AC this month , I figure these are probably pretty comparable months. My bill is: $88.42. For the year-ago period: $83.37. The price per kwh now is: 10.86 cents per kwh; a year ago, it was 11.03 cents (this was back when we were getting that "reduction" from the enormously high bills, as those of you in Md. will recall). I work from home and so tho I have a programmable thermostat, I never use that function, just adjust. I keep the house as 76 (75 if it is truly awful out) in the summer and in the winter, 72 (again, the truly bitter cold will get me to aim for 73 or 74). I turn the AC off at night most nights and just use a ceiling fan; it is often off during the day as well since I work in the (almost always cool) basement. Nothing else has changed "electrically" here; my hot water, refrigerator, and other power uses are unchanged, nothing is broken, etc. Obviously, I did not purchase "high efficiency" system but I assumed all NEW systems are more efficient and hopefully a little less expensive to run. I guess this was a wrong assumption.

I wanted to let you know what I have found with my upstairs front loader over the past several years. I had major issues with vibration too from my 3 year old Kenmore front loader (dishes would fall off my shelves on the first floor). It died 3 weeks out of the extended warranty (isn't that always the case?). I had my husband bring my older model Kenmore front loader from our rental property. It was an older model one and it was really heavy (I would guess 400 pounds). The repairman told me the older ones actually had a rim of cement in them for added weight to dampen the vibrations. Ironically, the old heavy machine doesn't vibrate at all. The extra weight more than dampens the spin cycle vibrations and we don't have any more issues. I would choose the heaviest one I can find next time I buy one. Maybe you can trying weighting it down with a few hundred pounds to see if it improves??? My washer just sits on hardwood. I only do laundry when I am home so I don't worry about a leak. Maybe the key to fixing your machines may be to add weight to it.

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!