Cayveman, I finally checked back on this thread. It's about thermodynamics and the conservation of energy, so in easy to understand terms when you have energy input (like the voltage and amps going to the heater) and what comes out has to be the same because the energy can't magically increase or be destroyed. It's simpler with electric resistance heaters because inefficiencies that we normally see in motors, pumps, etc. manifest themselves as heat which in this case we want. So the energy (kwh) can be directly converted to Btu's (Btu = Btu/hr average x number of hrs on). The reason I say Btu/hr average is that the heaters thermostat turns the heating element on and off. As for the heat lamp vs a std lamp, if they both draw 100 watts of power, they have the same heat output in Btus to a space. The std lamp would have a higher lumens (measurement of light) per watt but even the light after being absorbed and reflected by surfaces converts to heat. So there is ultimately no difference in the heat added to a room. Other items in your home such as TV's, dishwashers, etc. are not 100% efficient at doing the intended task, but all the input power in them as well converts into heat. So a dishwasher or refrigerator running helps heat your house as well as a portable heater in the winter but adds to the air conditioning load in the summer. Calculating the heat output is easy because all of the inefficiency of the motors and circuits in your appliances result in heat. That is not the case with your electric water heater because much of the heat is dumped down the drain with your bathwater and only a part of the heat stays in your home. Lastly concerning heating of air or water, the equation is the same for sensible heating or cooling (w/o removing moisture like an Air Cond. in the summer). What I think everyone is interested in is heating the space so a thermostat will show a higher temperature in the room. There is radiant heating used in non heated spaces where people have to stand in a line of site of the heater to feel the heat but that is like standing in front of a fireplace to keep warm. The equation for heating air or water is: Btu = mass x heat capacity x Temperature difference The difference is that water has a spec. wt. of about 62.4 pounds per cubic ft (Varies with temperature and can be found on the web.) Air is only about 0.075 pounds per cubic foot. (Varies with temperature and can be found on the web.) Also the heat capacity of water is 1.0 Btu/pound - deg F while that for air is 0.24 Btu/pound - deg F. Example: Small bathroom 5 ft x 9 ft with 8 ft ceilings at 40 degrees F. We want to heat to 80 deg F using a portable electric heater having an input of 1500 watts ( 5,119.5 Btu/hr input = output). Volume = 6 x 9 x 8 = 432 cubic ft Mass = 432 cubic ft x 0.075 pounds/cubic ft = 32.4 pounds Specific Heat of air = .24 Btu required = 32.4 pounds x 0.24 Btu/pound - deg F x (80 - 40) deg F = 311 Btu kWh= 311 Btu x 1 kWh / 3413 Btu = 0.091 kwh Time required to heat the room = 311 Btu x 1 hr / 5119.5 Btu = 0.0608 hr = 3.64 minutes You would actually take more than 3.64 minutes because you would be heating all the fixtures, walls, and if not insulated well other adjacent rooms. I asked my mailman if I could borrow one of his edenpure heaters for a test just to compare what Im describing above, the heating of a small bathroom with two types of heaters just for fun. I have the equipment to measure input energy and the air temperatures would have to be measured in several areas in the room every 30 seconds or so and recorded. There wont be a difference because its impossible but it might be interesting to post the test results. Could be done in the summer but you would have to heat the room to 100 deg F to get good results and preferably before the sun comes up (to eliminate another factor) and at about the same outdoor air temperature. What goes in has to be what comes out. It cant disappear or get larger. Not talking about heat pumps or air conditioners right now as that is a more complex subject and those units have COPs and EERs associated with them where the heat addition to a space is higher than the compressor energy used. They still dont violate the laws of thermodynamics about the creation or destruction of energy. Again this isnt saying everything is 100% efficient. Its just electrical appliances, heaters which wont have 100% efficient motors but the inefficiencies manifest themselves as heat. I used to sell pumps as a sales engineer and our pump curves would show the pump efficiencies which would vary depending on rpm, flow rate, and pressure. What this meant was that the motor and pump when combined might only be 75% efficient and was determined by tests performed by the pump and motor manufacturers that were shown on graphs that engineers used. The efficiency the manufacturer stated was based on the actual power required to pump a given flow and pressure compared to the theoretical power required (based on another engineering formula). All the electric power (watts) into the motor ends up as heat while moving the water. Pumping the water even heats it up slightly. Hope this clarifies things and I havent been too long winded. Even if its stored by being absorbed by a piece of copper it eventually is released into the air. It has to be the same as what's input. The same is true of a 100 watt light bulb no matter what type it is, although a heat lamp having larger diameter wire inside its bulb outputs a smaller percentage of light and more heat

That one at least looks like it would capture better than most, because of the pull out canopy, so if you have really limited options as to where you can put a microwave, this is probably a good option. I prefer mine at counter height but I did remodel a kitchen where I used an OTR microwave because the kitchen had one run of 27" counterspace and one of 18" and I was not going to waste any of that on a microwave. (The entire kitchen was about 45 square feet, the size of some people's islands.) It did actually draw quite well, despite the conventional wisdom in here. I know this because the temperature in the kitchen went up at least 15 degrees if you did not turn it on, and when it was first installed, due to a quirk in some existing duct work that we had to change, it discharged into an open vent in the powder room which was Underneath the kitchen on a lower floor. If you were sauteing in the kitchen with the exhaust on, if you went in the powder room you got a strong blast of hot steam that smelled like whatever you were cooking right in the face from the ceiling vent. So, it had to actually be doing something for that to happen--and strong enough to vent against gravity,,,down, as well. Does it work as well as a dedicated range hood with a large canopy? No. But it probably works better than the anemic range hoods that are all canopy with a little fan in the middle that I see as standard equipment in many new builds.

Multiple thoughts, not all in line with the majority: - Five bedrooms is a huge house. The potential field of buyers who want the space and upkeep of a house that large (and who can afford it) is relatively small. More plainly, You're looking to build a house that only a small percentage of buyers can afford to buy. Wanting a thing and being able to afford a thing aren't the same. Your pool of resale buyers will be small, so selling could take a long time, or you might be forced to take less than you want. - Yes, people will like the idea of a "master up and a master down": live-in space for mom, space for a live-in nanny or elder care-giver. Plenty of reasons people would like the space. But the real question is, Will your resale buyer be willing to pay what it will cost you to build it? Personally, I think you'll attract plenty of interest, but you may not attract the necessary dollars at resale to make this worthwhile. - How old are these small children? By the time you finish building this house, they'll probably be at least a year older -- how long will you want to have bedrooms close by? - I'm a highly practical person: you're talking about a short time when kids are small. To save money, could you sleep in a "non-master" upstairs for this short time, then move downstairs? - How "master" do you see your "masters"? That is, when you say "master bedroom", are you envisioning a slightly larger room with a modest walk-in closet and a private 3-piece bath ... or does "master" to you mean a spacious room with a seating area, a massive closet and a luxury bath? The question isn't just, "Should I have two masters?" It's, "Just how much will I put into a master?" Your own vision of "how much" can make a world of difference in this question. - Don't overbuild for your neighborhood. Remember that the biggest, most expensive house in the neighborhood is "drawn down" by the more modest houses that surround it. - Summary: Don't be caught up in just whether this is a desirable idea -- it is. Consider first and foremost whether it is an economically viable idea.

Would begin by designing the core of the home you want -- the main floor with a great room as your living area and your master bedroom suite all along the view side of the house. Count on adding a (6'-8' deep porch -- let your upstairs roof cover it so you can enjoy the space year round. Put the bedroom and great room on the side of the house with the view -- and include a room on the driveway side of the house that you can you can close off (control heat exchange) for the stairwell (with stair lift) in the approximate center on the road/driveway side of the house that will lead to the downstairs entry. ' You can put your kitchen with its smaller widows on the driveway side of the house as well as your master suite walk in closets on each side of that center stairwell room. You could put your laundry room with a powder room with their small windows on one end of the driveway side of the house and your master bath on the other end of the driveway side of the house so the frosted windows for each of them could be on the ends of the house rather than the driveway side of the house facing the road. Once you know the size of your main floor living area, you can create a couple of children's bedrooms upstairs within the attic -- steep roof or Mansard roof or Gambrell roof -- with gables with large windows or even sliding glass doors (with balcony) aimed toward the view and have that roof cover the full length porch on the view side of the house -- with the stairwell room between them on the driveway side of the house and a three room jack&jill bath on the view side of the house. Each children's room would have its own powder room along the outside wall with gable and frosted windows and each could access a third interior room between the two powder rooms and hallway with a tub/shower combination unit in it. Once you know the full size of your living area, build a full basement beneath it with a garage and a utility/storage room and, space permitting, a bonus room with small bath behind the stairwell room/entry that could be used as a guest room or home office as needed. By putting your two story porch/stoop and downstairs entry centered in front of the house, you could have one side of the ground floor as your two car garage and the other for your utility/storage and your bonus room with bath and, perhaps, even a screened porch and it not be obvious from the road that your main living area is on the second floor.