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.

Thanks for the comment. It's a 10" duct and the blower is inline remote with a muffler. It's all on the exterior of the house past 10" thick ICF walls. The blower itself will be suspended by porch rafters to reduce vibration transmission and the porch rafters are tied to the house with a ledger board on the exterior of the ICF so there's little to no vibration transmission into the house. The inspector is requiring a 10" MUA duct. I know that at full blast, it's not going to be whisper quiet, and I'm only expecting to use it full blast in rare occasions, but we do want the option for that many CFMs. As I mentioned above, the range top is 48" with four burners, a char-broiler, and a griddle for a total output of 111000 btu. I doubt we'll ever use everything full blast at one time but my biggest concern is smoke from the char-broiler and grease/oils from the Chinese cooking I frequently do. The MUA will come through the toe kick of the range top base cabinet so it helps create an air curtain to pull out smoke/grease/oil. Believe me, I have the same concerns about cold/hot air in the MUA, but to achieve the worst case scenario for cooking containment, we need to look at corresponding CFMs. I'll have to see how the controls open the MUA damper. I wonder if it's the case where the damper only opens over 500 CFMs, but I would imagine that with our tight house construction, we might not want that.

Thanks, everyone. The price at Amazon and Walmart = $109.?? i spent a lot of time reading reviews for the Akorn Kamado Jr..Lots of reviews and most buyers were happy with it. I was thinking, since I already have a propane grill, that I might enjoy using the small Kamado-like (not ceramic, but enameled steel) grill for two things: 1. Baking artisan pizzas outside, especially in hot weather when we need to run the AC inside. 2. Smoking small things like Salmon fillets, turkey breast, fish, vegetables or chicken. We try not to eat fatty red meats like beef, brisket, steak, ribs ;-( However: I looked at reviews. Lots of people love it, and it is very affordable, BUT 1. It is not well-machined or assembled. 2. It does conserve charcoal and can get very hot - good for pizzas and searing. 3. Supposed to be a "smoker" too but you have to buy a $40 ceramic stone and even then, many argue that the heat source is too close to what you want to (slow) smoke. 4. Customer support doesn't look so good. *** Meanwhile, there is someone On CL giving away a free nice offset smoker. I don't want to/cannot eat a lot of smoked beef, pork and fatty chicken. But I do enjoy some amount of turkey, chicken and fish. older ad, so may be gone. Supposedly ONLINE there are How-Tos on how to tinker with and improve one of those Brinkmann like (red one in cellar) cold water smokers. (We have an unused one, see below.) We could keep the $110 red ceramic like cooker I just got for pizzas outdoors, especially on hot days. -- I already have a Char-Griller mini barrel charcoal grill. I mostly use this as a small fire pit, but sometimes cook over the coals. -- I also have a Webber Baby Q gas grill. Easy to use. -- In the garage I have an unused, Brinkmann style water smoker. Never used. Was going to sell or give away, but it's heavy gauge steel and I've heard that there are ways to tinker with them. Otherwise, the are leaky and run through fuel and in cold (New England) weather, you cannot really count on them to smoke anything for very long. They just cannot get and stay hot. -- Currently we make an artisan pizza ~ every 10 days and bake it in a kitchen oven for 7-8 minutes at 550 deg. F which gives good results. -- Someone gave me a couple of 20" long Jenn-air electric rotisserie units, but we don't yet have any stove or grill that the can work with. Maybe we can jury rig some way to sop port them and keep them covered? Anyone here use the Weber 18" or 22" kettle grill with either the smokerette set up or the rotisserie unfit? I'm wondering what rotisserie baking offers? Guess that's pretty much got to be fatty/critter skin as well? I love cooking, love eating, like cooking outside, and love good gadgets. Problem I sleeping these gadgets clean, storing them. I appreciate your ideas and feedback. Here is some info on the Akorn Kamado Jr. https://www.amazon.com/Char-Griller-Akorn-Kamado-Kooker-Charcoal/dp/B00EBWBFQQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

1. The AMANA AMEC96 is a multi-speed gas furnace as described in the Technical Manual. 2. The furnace can be connected to a single-stage thermostat or a two-stage thermostat. If the former is installed, it is wired as shown on Figure 24 of the Installation Instructions. 3. With a single-stage thermostat, the furnace switches between stage 1 and stage 2 as described in the paragraph at the top of page 23: --- "SINGLE-STAGE HEATING THERMOSTAT APPLICATION "A single-stage thermostat with only one heating stage may be used to control this furnace. The application of a single-stage thermostat offers a timed transition from low to high fire. The furnace will run on low stage for a fixed period of time before stepping up to high stage to satisfy the thermostat’s call for heat. The delay period prior to stepping up can be set at either a fixed 10 or 20 minute time delay or a load based variable time between 1 and 12 minutes (AUTO mode). If the AUTO mode is selected, the control averages the cycle times of the previous three cycles and uses the average to determine the time to transition from low stage to high stage." --- 4. As stated in the paragraph above Figure 24, the furnace dip switches are set to AUTO mode at the factory; the furnace automatically switches between stage 1 and 2. 5. You can change the stage-1-to-stage-2 delay to 10 minutes or 20 minutes by moving the dip switches as shown in the table at the top of page 23. --- Note: If you connect a two-stage thermostat to the furnace, switching between stage 1 and stage 2 will be controlled by the thermostat if you also set the dip switches correctly.