We went through pretty much the same situation - our home had red oak flooring in the kitchen/dining area and ten years after we moved in we decided to install the same oak flooring in two adjoining rooms. We had the old floor refinished at the same time the new floors were finished and we decided to use a Swedish (Glitsa) finish, because it had held up well on the old floor. It was a major ordeal to remove all of our furniture (out to the garage), tape up all our kitchen cabinets and seal off the stairwell. We boarded our cats at the vet's office for the week, and headed out of town for four days; when we returned we threw all the windows wide open because the smell was awful. With the windows open it was tolerable, but unfortunately we ended up with the coldest day on record for July and had to go find someplace warm to kill time. I found no problem sleeping that night, with windows open, and after a couple more days (with the windows open) the smell disappeared. We waited a full week from the day the finish had been applied before bringing our furniture back in, just to be safe. In the end it was all worth the effort - it's been 12 years now and the floors still look great - just a few surface scratches in the dining area where a couple of my dining chairs lost their protective pads. I never wash the floors, preferring to spot clean with Pledge Multi Wipes and doing an occasional deep cleaning (only once or twice a year) with clean rags and mineral spirits in high traffic areas. (Windows open for sure when I do this!) I've tried floor cleaning products and never found one that didn't leave the floor looking dull. (We don't wear shoes indoors so that's a big reason why the floors stay pretty clean.) I would Google water-based vs. Glitsa to glean more info, especially from folks who use these products. You might also see if there's a paint store in your area who can show you samples of different wood finishes. In our area we have a couple of local shops who offer a variety of wood finishing products and they display a variety of woods with finishes. This might give you a better idea of what a water based finish would look like. Best of luck! :-)

Well, I'm finally checking back on this thread. We just moved back into the house after having the new wood floors installed and then having the old and new floors all finished at the same time. DH would not budge on the finish, so we ended up with the Swedish Oil Finish. I mentioned to DH that some states have made Swedish Oil Finish illegal, but he still wanted that finish for our floors because that's what we had before (or so the guy who bid the job thought). Want to know something funny? The day before they started finishing the floors the guys working in our home stated that we had WATER based finish. So who knows? On the plus side, I'm very happy with the looks of our floors. They did an excellent job threading in new boards with the old to combine the new wood floors with the ones that were installed twenty years ago. You can't tell which is old and which is new---it all just looks like a beautiful new floor. We decided to go with the natural finish, and I couldn't be happier. We stayed in a hotel one day longer than the floor guys suggested, and I'm glad we did. Yesterday I spent much of the time parked in the car in front of our house, after DH had gone in (with a respirator on) and opened windows everywhere to start airing the house out. Later, we added fans and then the started the furnace on fan only. As I write this, I'm sitting in my house with fans running everywhere and almost every window open (on three floors). My eyes sting a little and my throat hurts; I have a nagging headache. I also have noticed some impact on my breathing. However, I'm hanging in there and haven't had a full-blown major asthma attack so far. Upstairs is definitely better than downstairs. I'm disappointed to have to deal with this, but it does seem to be getting better. I'm hoping to be able to sleep upstairs tonight, but if I can't, I'm going to ask my sister if I can sleep on her sofa tonight. Does anyone have information on the time it takes for the floor to fully cure (and, thus, for the off-gassing to end)? Also, I'm wondering about moving furniture back in. I've heard everything from two weeks to sixty days, so I'm not sure what to expect. The foor guys seem to only state that the vast majority of the chemicals are off-gassed in the first forty-eight hourss. That's all well and good, but with something this strong, the few remaining can be pretty significant. If I can get through this without a trip to the doctor/hospital, it will be worth it. I'm so excited to finally have this done.

Shortly after we built our previous house in 1981, we installed a sun tunnel in our windowless bathroom. We used the Solatube brand. It was just what they call a daylight system. It did not have a light or vent added on. It was great. We sold that house quiet a few years ago but during the time we had the Solatube we never had any issues with it. We loved having the Solatube so much, that when my daughter bought a home with windowless bathroom, we had a Solatube installed in their bathroom as a house warming present for them. Theirs is also a daylight system. Most days you do not even need to turn a light on in their bathroom. At night if the moon is out you get a nice soft night light too. My DD's bathroom is only 76x61 plus the tub alcove area. She has 2 four inch recessed lights in the ceiling and has a 24" wide rectilinear bath bar over her vanity mirror. She does not feel the need for any additional light in her bathroom. Here picture taken during the day without any of the bathroom lights turned on The link below is for the brand we both used. Solatube

Competitors models noise at 100% would be roughly the same, minus the hissing sound when it shuts off. Given how your unit is situated you may not hear the hissing sound on off cycle. It doesn't last that long maybe 5 seconds and may be more of a swooshing sound in winter at colder temps. I've only heard it after running in cooling cycle in warm weather. You might be able to get better 'rough' estimates in terms of performance via amp draws. Find out how many heat strips you have. Typically these are strung in 5kw sizing strings. If this system is large you may have 3 or 4 strips. A 5kw strip pulls about 20 amps. 4 x 20 = 80 amps. That is one heck of a load. Your Heat Pump may pull as low as 5amps up to maybe 15amps in high. For this reason, lower temps, moisture in air and ultimately how much defrost is required would be the wild card(s) of a heat pump system. I don't know that you'll ever know for sure what the breakeven point is because OAT conditions change. Humidity, rain, snow etc. can change your performance meters... when only considering temperature alone. Meaning if the unit is buried in snow at 25 degrees, is likely not the same running at 25 degrees not buried in snow.